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Subject:
From:
Nina Berry <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:51:24 +1100
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Isn't google wonderful?  e-med http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1319.htm
displays the following information about frequency.  
"United States
The estimated annual incidence of listeriosis is approximately 2-3 cases per
million population. In 2004, 753 new cases of listeriosis were reported in
the United States.
International
The estimated annual incidence of listeriosis is approximately 4 cases per
million population in Canada. Surveillance of listeria infections in Europe
reported an incidence varying between 0.3 (Greece) and 7.5 (Sweden) cases
per year.
Mortality/Morbidity
Early onset neonatal listeriosis has a 20-30% mortality rate. Late-onset
neonatal listeriosis has a 0-20% mortality rate. The mortality rate in older
children is less than 10%. Hydrocephalus, mental retardation, and other CNS
sequelae have been reported in survivors of Listeria meningitis."

However, medscape http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/534793 estimates a
much higher frequency, and higher still in pregnancy: 
"The overall incidence of listeriosis is low: 0.7 cases per 100,000
population. This infection more often occurs in persons older than 70 years
(2.1 cases per 100,000); pregnant women (12 cases per 100,000); patients
with defects in cell-mediated immunity, including renal transplant
recipients; patients receiving high doses of corticosteroids; and patients
with AIDS (100 cases per 100,000).28 At a large referral hospital, Listeria
organisms were the third most common cause of community-acquired bacterial
meningitis in adults (12% of cases)."

This infection is so devastating and so easily avoided that it is not
unreasonable to recommend that mothers take precautions.  However, other
sources point out that this infection may well be so common (and usually so
mild) as to go unnoticed, since up to one in twenty adults carry
L.monocytogenes in their digestive tracts.  It is not usual to culture the
stools of mothers who miscarry or deliver preterm so the epidemiology is
probably sketchy.  Furthermore it can be argued that pregnancy is a time
when a woman's immune system is compromised (although I have issues with
understanding pregancy as pathological) making her more susceptible to this
infection.

Nina Berry
Australia

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