Latent listeriosis may cause habitual abortion intrauterine deaths, fetal malformations. When diagnosed and treated adequately normal children will be born.
We endeavoured to prove latent listeriosis (LL), a chronic and asymptomatic infection, in women who suffered from repeated accidents in their pregnancies. By the reduction of immune defences in the pregnant woman, the latent infection may break out again, affecting thus the fetus and causing abortion, stillbirths or malformations. In such women the diagnosis of LL is urgent right from the start of pregnancy, and so is the antilisteria treatment to protect the fetus. Antilisteric antibodies are readily detected by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF), using live antigen or antigen not inactivated by high temperatures of inadequate conservation, as is frequent in currently used agglutination test reactives. Out of the 309 women, 207 had a total of 334 abortions, 67 prematures, 75 stillbirths, 43 malformed living or dead offsprings. High positivity of IIF was the only aetiologic date to explain these accidents. Treatment of new pregnancies of a part of these IIF-positive women led to birth of 152 normal children, negative by IIF for listeriosis. The search for LL at the onset of any pregnancy, same as done in various infections (lues, toxoplasmosis, etc.) is therefore warmly recommended.
Romaña
C
C
Sanitation Department, Barcelona, Spain.
Salleras
L
L
Sage
M
M
D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D008088:Listeriosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control*