[A spate of listeriosis in newborn infants in Vienna (author's transl)].

Twelve years after the last bacteriologically verified case of human listeriosis was reported in Austria, 3 cases of neonatal listeriosis have been observed in Vienna within the space of a few months. In 2 patients the disease was definitely septicaemic, whilst the third suffered from predominantly pneumonic manifestations. As the clinical picture is not uniform, neonatal listeriosis may be difficult to recognize. Therefore, the consulted physician ought always to consider this disease, when he is confronted with obscure infections in newborn infants. The most important and, indeed, only diagnostic investigation to prove suspected listeriosis is bacteriological culture. Serological findings do not offer a conclusive diagnosis in cases of this disease.