Listeriosis in a Pregnant Woman and a Neonate

Abstract

Listeriosis is an infectious disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes. It' s rare in healthy adults, it could be fatal in pregnant women. Listeriosis in pregnant women causes fever and flu-like symptoms, but could lead to fatal consequences. However, because there are few cases of listeriosis reported in Korea, the symptoms are ambiguous and the standard diagnostic tool has yet to be determined, making accurate diagnosis difficult. We present a case of a 35-year-old pregnant woman who had fever and headache. Initially, we didn't find the cause of fever. However, after delivery, L. monocytogenes was detected in the neonatal gastric aspirate culture, blood cultures. The placenta and amniotic membrane showed acute suppurative inflammation and chorioamnionitis. The mother recovered after antibiotic treatment and delivery, but in the case of the newborn baby, the patient died despite treatment. We report a case of listeriosis in a pregnant woman and a neonate with literature review.

Whole-genome sequencing of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from the first listeriosis foodborne outbreak in South Korea

“…Although listeriosis has been uncommon in Korea, the incidence of listeriosis among the elderly and immunocompromised patients in three Korean hospitals increased from 1.8 per 100,000 inpatients in 2006-2012to 5.5 in 2013-2016(Choi et al, 2018. There has also been a recent case of pregnancy-related listeriosis, resulting in premature infant death (Yun et al, 2020). To deepen our understanding of the genetic features of the outbreak strain and other L. monocytogenes strains isolated from South Korea, this study aimed to obtain the whole genome sequence of a strain isolated from a patient afflicted by this outbreak and to compare it with food isolates collected in South Korea.…”