Listeria monocytogenes neonatal meningitis in The Netherlands.

As part of a collaborative study of the epidemiology of bacterial meningitis, the bacteriological data and some clinical features concerning neonates with Listeria monocytogenes meningitis were analysed for the period 1976-1982. In this group of 12 patients the case mortality rate was 17%. Seventeen per cent of the children weighed less than 2500 g at birth. Sixty-seven % of the cases occurred in the absence of any known risk factor. Listeria monocytogenes type IV B was isolated in 75% of the cases.