Listeria monocytogenes in Maternity Hospital in Kuwait
Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a Gram-positive facultative intracellular bacterium that is responsible for a global foodborne pathogen and the leading cause of Listeriosis. Listeriosis can manifest as a self-limiting gastroenteritis in immunocompetent adults, septicemia and an infection of the central nervous system (neurolisteriosis), mainly in elderly and immunocompromised people, and maternal-neonatal (MN) listeriosis in pregnant women. Maternal-neonatal listeriosis is increasingly recognised as one of the infections with the highest fetal and neonatal morbidity, resulting in fetal losses in at least 25% of cases and severe neonatal infections or prematurity in the majority of other cases worldwide and in the Middle East. L. monocytogenes infections are accountable for the highest hospitalization rates among all foodborne pathogens and have also been linked to large outbreaks of human illness worldwide .