A cluster of invasive listeriosis in Brescia, Italy

Excerpt

Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive facultative intracellular organism that frequently contaminates food-processing environments. Increasing incidence rates of invasive listeriosis have been reported over the last few decades by several European countries, with an incidence of listeriosis ranging from 0.3 to 0.8/100,000 people/year in France and Italy, respectively [1]. L. monocytogenes causes an invasive disease with the involvement of central nervous system and bactaeremia with a high case fatality (20–30 %). Various risk factors have been related to invasive listeriosis. Older adults, where there is an immunosenescence of T-cell-mediated immunity, patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies and people with impaired cell-mediated immunity or autoimmune diseases are at higher risk of invasive listeriosis. Maternal infections are often asymptomatic or mild, but pregnant women can transmit the infection to the fetus, for whom the infection can be fatal [2]. …