Maternal and neonatal death due to pneumococcal infection

A 27-year-old woman died from pneumococcal meningitis associated with pneumococcal endometritis two days after being delivered of a .1.75-kg infant. The infant also had pneumococcal septicemia and died six days after birth. The pneumococcus isolated from the mother and the baby was type 8. The membranes had ruptured 21 hours before delivery, and the mother had received a salbutamol infusion in an attempt to inhibit labor with injections of betamethasone to prevent neonatal respiratory distress. This case typified the dramatic onset and lethal nature of some pneumococcal infections.