Neonatal meningitis and maternal sepsis caused by Streptococcus oralis

A newborn male infant was admitted to the neonatal unit with suspected early onset neonatal sepsis for monitoring and intravenous antibiotics. Despite his initial normal clinical and laboratory parameters, cerebrospinal fluid cultures done on day 4 of life confirmed Streptococcus oralis meningitis. His mother became unwell shortly after labour, and grew Streptococcus oralis in her blood cultures. Both were successfully treated with antibiotics and made a full recovery. Streptococcus oralis has been associated with meningitis in patients receiving spinal anaesthesia or following dental work, but is an uncommon cause of neonatal meningitis and maternal sepsis. We describe the first case in the literature where a mother-baby pair developed invasive non-pyogenic streptococcal disease with the same organism. There is a need for robust guidelines on antibiotic therapy in these cases.