Scotland’s health watchdog has issued a warning to hospitals over a deadly listeria outbreak linked to sandwiches.
Three patients in England have died after contracting the infection and a further three have fallen ill.
Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has written to the country’s 14 health boards to make sure they are storing pre-packaged sandwiches properly.
An HPS spokeswoman said no cases were linked to Scotland.
An investigation into the source of the infection, related to products supplied by the Good Food Chain, has been launched by Public Health England (PHE). The dead patients were at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool.
The first person showed symptoms on April 25 while the most recent case was reported on May 15, a PHE spokeswoman said. Salads and sandwiches were withdrawn on May 25, as soon as a link was suspected.
The Good Food Chain, which supplied 43 NHS UK trusts, has voluntarily ceased production.
The business was supplied with meat produced by North Country Cooked Meats, which has since tested positive for the outbreak strain of listeria and stopped production.
Listeria infection is rare and usually causes a mild illness in healthy people.
It can have more serious consequences among those with pre-existing medical conditions, pregnant women and those with a weak immune system.
