Listeriosis in pregnancy

Definition

• Listeriosis in pregnancy is an infection with Listeria monocytogenes that can be transmitted to the child transplacentally during pregnancy, during birth or postnatally.

Occurrence & epidemiology

Epidemiology

• The disease is notifiable in Germany; like newborns, older and immunocompromised people, pregnant women belong to the risk groups.

Aetiopathogenesis

Aetiology and pathogenesis

• Listeria are gram-positive, motile, facultatively anaerobic rods that multiply intracellularly and can in principle grow even at refrigerator temperature.
• Listeriosis is a foodborne infection, for example via soft raw-milk cheese, raw sausage, minced meat, smoked fish or pre-cut salads.

Clinical features

Clinical features and complications

• In pregnant women, the disease usually runs an inconspicuous flu-like course or is even asymptomatic.
• The infection can pass to the unborn child, with the risk of preterm birth, stillbirth or a child born infected.
• In the newborn, early-onset infection occurs in the first week of life with sepsis, respiratory distress and skin lesions (granulomatosis infantiseptica), and late-onset infection from the second week, often as meningitis.

Diagnosis

• The organism is detected by culture, among others from blood, cerebrospinal fluid, vaginal secretions, lochia and meconium.

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Further reading (selection)

1. Robert Koch Institute, RKI-Ratgeber (German): Listeriose

Cross-references