Meningitis por Listeria monocytogenes: un caso en el servicio de Pediatría del Hospital de San José, Bogotá D.C

Listeria monocytogenes is a not sporulated Gram (+) cocobacile, anaerobic facultative, It is widely distributed in nature and grows in wide rank of temperature (-0,4 ºC to 50 ºC). It grows well in agar blood and agar chocolate and constitutes an important cause of special infection in pregnant women, newborn population and inmunosuprimids, causing bacteriemia and meningitis in these patients.In pediatrics, the L. Monocytogenes is within the three main causes of neonate meningitis, appearing like an early infection (before the third day of age) behaving like an early neonate sepsis. The neonate listeriosis of delayed presentation is less common; it appears in new born children upon maturity, after the second week of life and attends like a meningitis.Subsequent to the neonate period 30% to 50% of the patients presents/displays a clinical picture of meningitis, not associated to inmunosupression. (Acta Neurol Colomb 2005;21:170-173).