http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/police-schedule-press-conference-amid-report-of-obama-assassination-plot-2008-08-25.html

Don't eat the deli meat from Maple leaf because they are having a listeria outbreak.
People are dying from it and if your immune system has been compromised your the perfect candidate for contracting it.
Sounds cut an dry until you look at the facts of listeria and it's prime cause for growth.
That breaks down to soil, contaminated water, sewage or just plain filth of the
preparation are in which the food is processed.

Now if you look in wikipedia you will see that they have a spray to apply upon the meat to
alleviated any chance of listeria contamination.
Just another one of those chemicals that they innocently add to your daily ingestion to help keep you safe from the contagions of the world.
Sounds like a winner all the way around doesn't it until you also realize that this very same substance they spray on your meat is being developed for potential into a cancer vacine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeria

The prevention of Listeria as a food illness involves effective sanitation of food contact surfaces. Alcohol has proven to be an effective topical sanitizer against Listeria. Quaternary ammonium can be used in conjunction with alcohol as a food contact safe sanitizer with increased duration of the sanitizing action. Nonflammable Alcohol Vapour in carbon dioxide NAV-CO2 systems or sodium hypochlorite are frequently used to sanitize surfaces to prevent Listeria.

[edit] Modern relevance/future research
Listeria is an opportunistic pathogen: it is most prevalent in the elderly, pregnant mothers, and AIDS patients. With improved healthcare leading to a growing elderly population and extended life expectancies for AIDS patients, physicians are more likely to encounter this otherwise rare infection (only 7 per 1,000,000 healthy people are infected with virulent Listeria each year).[1] Better understanding the cell biology of Listeria infections, including relevant virulence factors, may help us better treat Listeriosis and other intracytoplasmic parasites. Researchers are now investigating the use of Listeria as a cancer vaccine, taking advantage of its "ability induce potent innate and adaptive immunity."[5][9]

[edit] Treatment
Antibiotics effective against Listeria species include ampicillin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, linezolid, azithromycin, and cotrimoxazole.

[edit] Future treatment options
Intralytix has created a virus spray with bacteriophages to be applied to food for the prevention of Listeriosis by killing six strains of L. monocytogenes bacterium.[10] EBI Food Safety has created and put a similar product on the market, LISTEX P100. LISTEX P100 prevents Listerios in food by using bacteriophages for killing Listeria. [11]