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29 July 2010PloS Medicine
Unusual cases of listeriosis in the developing world
Rogier van Doorn and colleagues from Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam present a Learning Forum article in this week's PLoS Medicine that describes three unusual cases of patients with listerial meningitis.
Listeriosis is a foodborne infection caused by Listeria monocytogenes that presents with a sepsis-like syndrome or as an acute-to-subacute central nervous system infection, mostly meningitis, with a 20%-30% mortality despite adequate treatment.
Listeriosis in the developed world has most commonly occurred among newborns or in the elderly, during severe immune suppression, and especially during pregnancy. But this pattern cannot be assumed for those in developing countries: two of the three cases presented by Dr van Doorn and colleagues did not match this profile.
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Chau TTH, Campbell JI, Schultsz C, Chau NVV, Diep TS, et al. (2010) Three Adult Cases of Listeria monocytogenes Meningitis in Vietnam. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000306. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000306
