[Listeriosis : evaluation of twenty years of inquires at Rouen (France) (author's transl)].

The laboratory of bacteriology of the CHU of Rouen has isolated in twenty years 297 strains of Listeria monocytogenes which are corresponding to 249 cases, 48 new-borns being infected by the same germ as their mother. The listeriosis frequency is increasing ; the disease is recurrent, with a periodicity of four years, but the number of the cases which are observed every year is larger than that which has been observed four years before. The disease seems to affect mainly the women ; in reality, both sexes are sensitive, but some conditions, especially the pregnancy, are favouring the disease burst. Five pregnant women per one thousand incur the risk to catch a listeriosis during their pregnancy ; for want of early diagnosis and treatment, they will not be able to carry their pregnancy through, and will generally give birth to shortly condemned children.