Listeriosis testing?

Question

How does the doctor test a person for listeriosis? From a blood sample? or something else? Just wanted to know.

Answer 1

That depends on how the person presents with symptoms. Listeria is a bacterial infection that can cause blood sepsis, meningitis, intrauterine infection or gastrointestinal infection.

I'm guessing you're asking because of the lunchmeat recall.  If you're 15 and healthy, the chances of you getting seriously sick with Listeria are pretty slim. I have been doing listeria research for a few years,and the only times I have seen it infect someone your age were all in cancer patients and teen mommies who didn't take care of themselves.

With that said, suppose you were pregnant and you came down with a high fever and premature delivery. The doctor would test your blood, your baby's blood and your amniotic fluid for Listeria.

If you have GI symptoms, they'd test your stool for Listeria.

If you had fever and stiff neck or altered concoiusness, then they'd do a lumbar puncture and test your cerebrospinal fluid for Listeria.

And if you came in with a high fever, they'd test your blood for Listeria.

It's easy to test for Listeria. You take the specimen, Gram stain it and look at it under a scope. Listeria is Gram positive and rod-shaped. Pretty easy for a microbiologist to spot. It's also easy to cure if you're not dying of something else (which is often the case with listeriosis). Just a dose of antibiotics for a few days and you should get better.