Invasive Listeria Infection in babies
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Surveillance of invasive Listeria infections in infants under 90 days of age
IRAS ID
203984
Contact name
Nadia Azzouzi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Listeria is a rare bacterial infection that can cause severe disease in babies under 3 months old and in pregnant women. Pregnant women can pass the infection to their unborn babies. This can cause miscarriage, premature birth or severe disease (such as meningitis) in newborn babies, often leaving the baby with long-term disabilities or resulting in death.
Current national guidelines (e.g. the NICE guidelines), advising doctors on antibiotic treatment for babies younger than 3 months, recommend an antibiotic combination that will treat listeria infection. Unfortunately, this does not happen everywhere and some babies with possible listeria infection do not get the right antibiotics. Conversely, we know from a recent national study of meningitis that only babies younger than 1 month of age had listeria meningitis. This raises the possibility that thousands of babies between 2 and 3 months of age may be receiving antibiotics that are not needed.
Through the BPSU we will ask paediatricians to inform us of all babies with listeria infections in the UK and Ireland over a two years period. Paediatricians will be requested to complete a questionnaire during the illness and one when the baby is 12 months old. Data on listeria infections routinely submitted to microbiology laboratories will also be collected.
This study will define how common listeria is in babies under 3 months of age in the UK and Ireland, its short and long-term health complications and inform us about the appropriateness of the national antibiotic guidelines in order to better prevent and treat this infection. The study will also help defining the ethnic groups and areas where listeria may be a more common problem, this information is instrumental to increase awareness in pregnancy and alert the obstetricians of the need to cover listeria when treating at risk pregnant women.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0491
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion