Charlie Smith
THE Government has said all pregnant women must be assessed after Malaga’s first abortion due to listeriosis.
A woman 22 weeks pregnant lost her baby at the Hospital Costa del Sol today, amid the spread of listeria in contaminated meat products.
This is the sixth abortion caused by Spain’s biggest ever listeriosis outbreak, which has so far killed three people.
Four abortions were in public hospitals in Sevilla, with another in a private medical centre in Madrid.
It comes as a child with ‘very evolved cancer’ yesterday became the latest recorded case, taking Andalucia’s total to 205 and the number nationwide to 213.
The number of hospitalised patients has also increased to 46, while the total of pregnant victims has dropped today to 14.
Meanwhile, the Junta today advised ALL pregnant women to be checked by their GP or gynaecologist, according to Diario Sur.
Officials had previously said that only pregnant women with symptoms needed to consult medical advice.
But this new advice, issued to all doctors, recommends that even ‘asymptomatic’ women who have eaten the contaminated meat should be checked.
Doctors will contact pregnant women in their care during the next few days to decide if they need to be prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin.
In this new protocol, which is backed up by eight different scientific groups, recommendations will be based on risk.
Pregnant women will be asked if they have eaten the infected La Mecha brand of the popular Spanish food, ‘carne mechada’.
If patients are unable to remember they will be given the drug, which in the last 10 days has successfully reduced the symptoms of 61% of victims.
A British man returning to the UK after a holiday in Spain was among the other suspected victims.
A German family of six people in Germany was also added to the list of those infected.
