Table 1.

Cases of Listeria infections associated with infliximab use.

Author	Year	Country	Age	Sex	Type of infection	Symptoms	Isolation of L. mono cytogenes	Underlying disease	Doses of infliximab	Concomitant drugs	Treatment	Outcome	Comments
Morelli et al8	2000	USA	67	M	Bacteremia	Fever, diarrhea, lethargy, weakness	Blood	Crohn’s disease	3 (4 days after 3rd infusion)	Prednisone, AZA, 5-ASA	Broad spectrum antibiotics for 4 days (NR) and then augmentin for 2 weeks	Recovered	Ingestion of processed meat the week prior to the admission
Gluck et al21	2002	Germany	60	F	Bacteremia, cholecystitis meningoence halitis	Fever, abdominal pain	Swab culture from the gallbladder obtained during surgery and a blood culture	Rheumatoid arthritis	6 (14 days after 6th dose)	Methotrexate, cyclosporin A, prednisolone	Cefriaxone, metronidazole	Death	Food NR
Gluck et al21	2002	Germany	62	F	Bacteremia, cholecystitis, brain abscess	Fever, abdominal pain and later hemiparesis, aphasia	Blood	Rheumatoid arthritis	2 (14 days after 2th dose)	Methotrexate	Ampicillin and gentamicin for a total of 18 weeks	Slow improvement of the neurologic symptoms	Food NR
Kamath et al11	2002	USA	17	F	Bacteremia/meningitis	Fever, headache, malaise, abdominal pain	Blood, CSF culture negative (done 4 days on antibiotics)	Crohn’s disease	1 (3 days after infusion)	Methylpredn isolone, 6-MP, 5-ASA	Ampicillin and cotrimoxazole for 6 weeks	Prolonged hospital course but fully recovered	Patient denied eating any suspicious food before symptoms
Aparicio et al18	2003	Spain	57	M	Meningitis	Headache, fever, confusion, vomiting	CSF	Psoriatic arthritis	6 (one month after 6th infusion)	Methotrexate, Prednisone	Ampicillin (duration NR)	Recovered	Food NR
Slifman et al (surveillance study)20	2003	USA, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Germany, France, Norway	Median age 69.5 years (range 17–80 years)	53% F (8/15)	Sepsis, meningitis, septic joint	NR	CSF, blood	9 patients with RA and 5 patients with Crohn’s, one patient no data reported. 3 of thesecases have already been described in the literature7,10,20	Median number of doses was 2.5 (range 1–6).	All patients were on steroids. Of the 9 patients with RA, 7 were reported as receiving concomitant methotrexate, and 1 was receiving cyclosporine (in addition to methotrexate). Of the 5 patients with CD, 1 was receiving mercaptopurine only, 2 were receiving mercaptopurine plus mesalamine, and 2 were receiving azathioprine plus mesalamine.	NR	5 deaths	Only one patient7 was reported as having ingested processed meat in the week preceding the diagnosis of listeriosis.
Slifman et al20	2003	Canada	64	F	Blood	NR	Blood	Crohn’s disease	1	Prednisone, 6-MP	NR	Recovered	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	Sweden	39	F	Blood/meningitis	NR	Blood, CSF	Crohn’s disease	3	Prednisone, 6-MP, 5-ASA	NR	Recovered, paralysis of one eye	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	Italy	20	M	Meningitis	NR	CSF	Crohn’s disease	1	Methylpredn isolone, AZA, 5-ASA	NR	Death	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	80	M	Blood/meningitis	NR	Blood, CSF	RA	2	Prednisone	NR	Death	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	74	F	Meningitis	NR	CSF	RA	6	Prednisone	NR	Death	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	78	M	Meningitis	NR	CSF	RA	3	Methotrexate	NR	Remained comatose at time of report	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	73	F	Blood, possible meningitis	NR	Blood	RA	2	Prednisone, methotrexate, nycophenolate mofetil	NR	Death	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	74	F	Blood	NR	Blood	RA	5	Prednisone, methotrexate, hydroxychloroquine	NR	Recovered	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	USA	73	M	Meningitis	NR	CSF	RA	NR	Prednisone, methotrexate, leflunomide	NR	NR	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	Canada	60	M	Blood	NR	Blood	RA	2	Methotrexate	NR	NR	NR
Slifman et al20	2003	France	NR	F	Septic joint	NR	Synovial fluid	RA	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Tweezer-Zaks et al3	2003	Israel	48	M	Blood, splenic abscess	Fever, rigors, headache	Blood	Crohn’s disease	1 (9 days after infusion)	NR	Ampicillin, gentamycin and mertonidazole (duration NR)	Recovered	NR
Tweezer-Zaks et al4	2003	Israel	55	F	Blood	Fever, chills, malaise, mild dysuria	Blood	Crohn’s disease	2 year history of infliximab use (2 weeks after last infusion)	Prednisone, methotrexate	Ampicillin, gentamycin (duration NR)	Recovered	NR
Ljung et al19	2004	Sweden	NR	NR	Meningitis	NR	CSF	Crohn’s disease	NR	NR	NR	Recovered	NR
Bowie et al17	2004	USA	73	M	Meningitis	Decreased level of consciousness, headache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea for 3 days	CSF culture, blood	Rheumatoid arthritis	2 (3 weeks prior to symptoms)	Prednisone, methotrexate	Ampicillin for 21 days	Recovered	No change in food habits
Williams et al3	2005	Canada	37	M	Meningitis	Fever, tachycardia, diaphoresis, confusion	Blood cultures, CSF culture	Crohn’s disease	2 (6 days after second infusion)	Prednisone, AZA, 5-ASA	Iv ampicillin and gentamicin, later switched to iv ampicillin and trimethoprime sulfamethoxazole for a total of three weeks	Recovered	NR
Kesteman at al10	2007	Belgium	52	F	Terminal ileitis and bacteremia	Fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea	Blood	Rheumatoid arthritis	3 (one week after infusion)	Prendisone, nethotrexate	sulfamethoxaz oletrimethoprim and gentamicin IVand then PO sulfamethoxaz oletrimethoprim for a total of 30 days	Recovered
Kesteman at al10	2007	Belgium	79	M	Bacteremia associated with a prosthetic joint arthritis of the left hip	Fever, leg pain	Blood, intra-articular fluid from the left hip	Rheumatoid arthritis	4 years on infliximab (30 infusions)	Prendisone, nethotrexate	Ampicilliin for 2 weeks initially then ampicillin, rifampicin, gentamicin followed by a surgical arthrocentesis with debridement and combined with a long term antimicrobial treatment with amoxicillin (exact duration NR).	Recovered	The patient admitted consumption of soft cheeses some weeks before admission.
Izbeki et al13	2008	Hungary	50	M	Meningoenc ephalitis	Fever, headache, neck stiffness,	CSF	Crohn’s disease	1 (one day after infusion)	Prednisone, 6-MP	Ampicillin, gentamicin	Residual unilateral weakness of eye movements	NR

Abbreviations: AZA: Azathioprine, CSF: cerebrospinal fluid F: Female, MP: Mercaptopurine, M: male, NR: Not reported, RA: Rheumatoid Arthritis.