Hi everyone! I am hoping to get feedback from an infectious disease expert rather than people on the pregnancy Reddit or my own doctor (the nurses at my OB offices are actual idiots. Don’t even get me started)
I just would like to hear true, scientific feedback to my risk in this situation and how the bacteria actually functions. I am not looking to be shamed for anxiety which I clearly have and the pregnancy group took care of that shaming.
I am 18.5 weeks pregnant. According to FDA studies, 17.7% of avocados test positive for listeria on the skin. I understand the flesh inside is less than 1%. This is the story:
After reading this stat, I took my avocado under running water and scrubbed it with my hands (no produce brush, didn’t know this was a thing). I basically turned it around and massaged it with my hands. I then dried it with a paper towel, and repeated the process because of my listeria anxiety. I then handled it more while cutting it open and scooping it out. In the end, I didn’t even eat the damn avocado.
What I did do, like an idiot, is proceed to make my burrito, with my hands, and eat it, with my hands, without actually washing my hands at any point. It then dawns on me AFTER that I just massaged an avocado with a 1 in 5.6 risk of having listeria then touched all over my food.
My understanding is your bacterial load threshold is way lower during pregnancy for listeria. I also am horrified that listeria infections can be asymptomatic in pregnancy. I have read the stats for the likelihood and understand they are low. My Google “research” tells me that I probably just stuck all the listeria potentially on the avocado directly onto my hands during the massage then proceeded to prepare and eat my food with them.
I guess I’m looking to learn from professionals the risk here, the behavior of listeria transfer, how much bacterial load this was.
Thank you