Listeria fear over Virgin Blue meals on NZ flights

Passengers on Virgin Blue flights in NZ this year may have been exposed to the potentially deadly bacterium listeria.

The company is working with Queensland health authorities after fears that chicken wraps served on flights to New Zealand, Bali and on Australia's east coast were contaminated with listeria.

The food was sold to companies in southeast Queensland, including Virgin Blue, between May and June.

But with a 70-day incubation period, there were concerns people could still fall ill.

The listeria bacterium causes flu-like symptoms, including fevers and headaches, vomiting and diarrhoea and can lead to meningitis.

Though it is not likely to affect a healthy person, it has a 30 per cent fatality rate in the elderly, babies and people with weakened immune systems.

In pregnant women, even mild symptoms can cause miscarriage, premature delivery and, in rare cases, stillbirth.

Queensland Health sent out warnings this week after noticing a big increase in the number of listeria cases in Australia 56 in the past six months compared with about 60 in a whole year.

Listeriosis is a notifiable disease in New Zealand and is monitored by Environmental Science and Research. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority was notified about a listeria outbreak by Australian authorities late last month, but an ESR spokeswoman said there was no recorded outbreak here.

So far this year there have been three cases in July and one this month, compared with three in July last year and five in August, she said. There had been none in Wellington.

"Overseas travel is not one of the risk factors collected for listeriosis and there is nothing in the case report forms to link the cases to the flights."

Virgin Blue has said it is investigating the source of the contamination.

- The Dominion Post