How does neonatal listeriosis impact children's health?

Neonatal listeriosis is a severe disease that, if contracted by pregnant women, can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery or serious fetal infection. But what are the longer-term consequences of neonatal listeriosis on the health of surviving infants? For the first time, a team of scientists and physicians from the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) and Inserm monitored the development up to age 5 of children who had been infected with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, and compared their development with that of non-infected gestational age-matched children. The study demonstrated that the long-term outcomes of neonatal listeriosis can mainly be attributed to prematurity. The results, published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, will enable parents to be informed in more detail about how the health of their children may develop and help anticipate the potential onset of neurodevelopmental sequelae.

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