--- title: Canadian Researchers Find Listeria Traffic Spiked When People Were Getting Sick date: 2009-03-17T11:22:22-07:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/news_events/canadian-researchers-find-listeria-traffic-spiked-when-people-were-getting-sick" section: News --- [All News](/news_events) / # Canadian Researchers Find Listeria Traffic Spiked When People Were Getting Sick Those Canadian researchers who found that searches for “listeriosis” spiked **before** last summer’s outbreak caused by dirty ready-to-eat meat cutting machines at Maple Leaf’s Toronto plant was announced publicly did not at all surprise us. Canadians were getting sick prior to the public announcement, and their doctors were giving them suspected causes of their illnesses. In the wired world, it’s natural to seek more information through a web search once you get home from the doctor. This is one of more than a dozen of the “bug” blogs sponsored by the law firm of **Marler Clark**. Like most of the “bug” sites, this blog is paired with an educational site going by the address [www.about-listeria.com](http://www.about-listeria.com/) Whenever an outbreak is about to be announced, we see traffic spikes. Now this phenomenon is verified by researchers. **Agweek** reports: ![](http://66.39.113.170/images/search_engines.gif)Online searches for the term “listeriosis” spiked several weeks before last summer’s outbreak of the illness was revealed to the public, an article reviewing Internet-based disease surveillance systems shows. **The Google** searches for listeriosis, which is the illness caused by Listeria bacteria, began to climb in mid-July and peaked in the first week of August. When the outbreak came to light in the third week of August, online searches for the more commonly used term “Listeria” soared, while searches for listeriosis continued to decline. The authors of the article, which was published electronically March 12 by the **Canadian Medical Association Journal**, say they don’t know who was doing the searching before the outbreak was publicly acknowledged. Nor do they know how many more searches than usual would have been needed to create the spike they noted. 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The team at Marler Clark is here to answer all your questions. Find out if you’re eligible for a lawsuit, what questions to ask your doctor, and more. [ Get a free consultation ](https://marlerclark.com/contact) ##### Related Resources ###### [Listeria Food Poisoning](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/listeria/about-listeria) What is Listeria and how does it cause food poisoning? Listeria is a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that is ubiquitous and can grow under either anaerobic (without oxygen) or aerobic (with... ###### [The Incidence of Listeria Infections](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/listeria/the-incidence-of-listeria-infections) How common are Listeria infections? Listeria bacteria are found widely in the environment in soil, including in decaying vegetation and water, and may be part of the fecal flora of... ###### [The Prevalence of Listeria in Food and the Environment](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/listeria/listeria-prevalence) Listeria bacteria are common in nature. Listeria monocytogenes is omnipresent in nature; it is found widely in such places as water, soil, infected animals, human and animal feces, raw and... ###### [Transmission of and Infection with Listeria](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/listeria/transmission-of-and-infection-with-listeria) Listeria typically spreads to people through contaminated food or water, but can also be transmitted from mother to fetus. 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