Listeriosis in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection in Spain. Three new cases and literature review

• Published in: Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiología clínica Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 18 - 21
• Main Authors: Guerra, José, Muinelo, Isabel, Pérez-Simón, María Rosario, Blanco, Belén, Carro, José Antonio, Alcoba, Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01.01.2004
• Subjects: Adult; HIV Infections - complications; Humans; Listeriosis - etiology; Male; Spain; Spain
• ISSN: 0213-005X
• DOI: 10.1157/13056687

Listeriosis has been considered infrequent among patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Only a limited number of listeriosis cases among HIV-infected patients have been published in Spain, where the prevalence of HIV infection is relatively high. We present our experience in this field and provide a review of the reported cases in our country. We report three cases of listeriosis among the 903 HIV-infected patients attended in our service. Age, sex, stage of HIV infection, clinical form of listeriosis, treatment, and prognosis are analyzed in these three patients and in the published cases. Sixteen (76%) of the 21 cases analyzed were males. Ten had central nervous system infection, ten had bacteremia alone or bacteremia associated with another condition, and one had pneumonia. Two patients died (9.5%) and none of them were treated with the antibiotics of choice for listeriosis. Although Listeria monocytogenes infection is infrequent in HIV-infected patients (0.33% of patients attended in our service), clinicians should be alert to this possibility, since even the severe clinical forms have a favorable prognosis with proper treatment.