Edwardsiella tarda is an Important Causative Agent of Maternal-Fetal Infections in Pregnant Women: a Case Report and Japanese Literature Review.

ABSTRACT

We present a case study of a 6-day-old male infant who was referred to our hospital for fever, jaundice, and poor suckling, and was diagnosed with meningitis due to Edwardsiella tarda. We were able to detect E. tarda DNA after performing broad-range polymerase chain reaction targeting the bacterial 16S rRNA gene followed by a Basic Local Alignment Search Tool analysis of the DNA extracted from the cerebrospinal fluid. Furthermore, Japanese literature review showed that E. tarda caused perinatal invasive infections in mothers and infants and that the risk of fetal meningitis might be related to the food preference of Japanese people for raw fish. It is crucial to disseminate the information that pregnant women should refrain from eating high-risk raw fish, including freshwater fish.