News Release

Listeriosis in the developing world may not follow usual pattern

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

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.

###

Funding: JIC, SB, CS, JJF, and HRvD are funded by Wellcome Trust Grants (077078/Z/05/Z). JJF and HRvD receive support from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (N01-A0-50042). The funders played no role in the decision to submit the article or in its preparation.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation: 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

IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000306

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: www.plos.org/press/plme-07-07-van-doorn.pdf

CONTACT:
Rogier van Doorn
Hospital for Tropical Diseases
Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme
Vietnam
0084907908103
rvandoorn@oucru.org


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.