Listeria monocytogenes – A case report

Introduction: Listeria monocytogenes commonly causes food borne infection which is usually harmless but it causes infection in vulnerable group like pregnant women, neonates, elderly and patient suffering from malignant condition or having co-morbidities like COPD and diabetes or on immunosuppressive drug. Listeriosis in neonates can be classified as early onset or late onset. While the early onset disease is due to an in utero infection resulting in abortion, still birth, premature delivery or septicemia, the late onset form occurs due to exposure to organism during vaginal delivery or by cross infection within the nursery. Case Report: Here we report a 1 and ½ month old male child (weight-2.14kg) presented with fever, vomiting and diarrhea and diagnosed as severely malnourished with acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration and shock with septicemia due to listeria monocytogenes and responded adequately to appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Conclusion: This case highlights the ultimate importance of early identification and timely application of appropriate antibiotics. We need to be more vigilant especially with high risk population with unknown case of fever. This case shows that it is important not to reject “gram positive bacilli” as contaminants without careful examination and correlation with clinical history of the patient.