Nosocomial Neonatal Listeria monocytogenes Transmission by Stethoscope

Neonatal listeriosis during a countrywide epidemic in South Africa: A tertiary hospital’s experience

“…However, LM neonatal infections at our institution were associated with high mortality (sporadic 62% and outbreak 25%), substantially exceeding the published crude fatality rate for neonatal nosocomial bloodstream infections at Tygerberg Hospital of 16%. [34] Although LM is well documented as a nosocomial pathogen in neonates, [14][15][16][17] we did not identify any nosocomial LM infections during 2017. Given the concerns regarding the potential for nosocomial LM transmission and the increasing incidence of neonatal infections in our unit, an infection control alert was issued to the hospital's obstetric and neonatal staff (Fig.…”

“…The infection prevention nurse practitioner at our institution co-ordinated reporting of all LM cases and communication with hospital staff regarding affected patients. In view of several published cases of nosocomial transmission of LM infection to neonates, [14][15][16][17] an alert to attending clinicians was distributed in January 2018 recommending use of contact precautions for LM-infected patients.…”

Neonatal cross-infection due to Listeria monocytogenes

“…Isolates from the early and late-onset neonatal cases were available from four of the episodes (including that described by Fullerton et al . [21]), two were CC1, one was CC2 and one CC6. Analysis of sequence data showed that, within each incident, all were indistinguishable (≤5 SNPs) and therefore indicative of a common source.…”

“…There was a total of 35 instances of possible neonatal crossinfection which occurred between 1971 and 2012: ten episodes have been described previously as case reports [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…WGS was applied to isolates from cases of episodes occurring between 1989 and 2012: one or more isolate was available from eight of the episodes, three were due to L. monocytogenes CC1, three to CC2, one to CC6 and one to CC18. Isolates from the early and late-onset neonatal cases were available from four of the episodes (including that described by Fullerton et al [21]), two were CC1, one was CC2 and one CC6. Analysis of sequence data showed that, within each incident, all were indistinguishable (≤5 SNPs) and therefore indicative of a common source.…”