Rl. Jurado et al., INCREASED RISK OF MENINGITIS AND BACTEREMIA DUE TO LISTERIA-MONOCYTOGENES IN PATIENTS WITH HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS INFECTION, Clinical infectious diseases, 17(2), 1993, pp. 224-227
The incidence, demographics, and clinical outcome of infections due to
Listeria monocytogenes in individuals infected with the human immunod
eficiency virus (HIV) were evaluated by prospective population-based s
urveillance. During a 2-year study period, 37 cases of invasive lister
iosis occurred in metropolitan Atlanta (annual incidence, 0.8 case per
100,000 population). Seven of these cases occurred in known HIV-infec
ted individuals (19% of all cases); five had an AIDS-defining illness,
and the other two had CD4 lymphocyte cell counts of <200/muL. The est
imated incidence of listeriosis among HIV-infected patients in metropo
litan Atlanta was 52 cases per 100,000 patients per year, and among pa
tients with AIDS it was 115 cases per 100,000 patients per year, rates
65-145 times higher than those among the general population. HIV-asso
ciated cases occurred in adults who were 29-62 years of age and in pos
tnatal infants who were 2 and 6 months of age. Mortality among the HIV
-infected group was 29%. L. monocytogenes serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, and 4b
were isolated from the HIV-infected patients. L. monocytogenes is an
important opportunistic pathogen in HIV-infected patients.