Two Cases of Type E Infant Botulism Caused by Neurotoxigenic Clostridium butyricum in Italy
- 1 August 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 154 (2), 207-211
- https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/154.2.207
Abstract
The first two confirmed cases of type E infant botulism occurred in two 16-week-old girls in Rome, Italy. The original diagnosis for the first patient was intestinal blockage due to an ileocecal invagination, which was treated surgically. Postoperatively, the patient became unresponsive and required ventilatory assistance. A diagnosis of infant botulism was then made. The second infant presented to the same hospital 7½ months later with profound weakness, hypotonicity, mydriasis, and areflexia. This case was recognized as possible botulism at admission. Both cases were confirmed by detection and identification of type E botulinal toxin in stool specimens and in enrichment cultures of those specimens. The toxigenic organisms isolated were quite different from Clostridium botulinum type E. The apparent causative organism in each case resembles Clostridium butyricum but produces a neurotoxin that is indistinguishable from type E botulinal toxin by its effects on mice and by its neutralization with type E botulinal antitoxin.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Quantitative Evidence of Intestinal Colonization by Clostridium botulinum in Four Cases of Infant BotulismThe Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1980