You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Research Article
Detection of Clostridium perfringens and its enterotoxin in cases of sporadic diarrhoea.
  1. M M Brett,
  2. J C Rodhouse,
  3. T J Donovan,
  4. G M Tebbutt,
  5. D N Hutchinson
  1. Food Hygiene Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, London.

    Abstract

    AIMS: To determine the incidence of sporadic and apparently non-food related diarrhoea associated with Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. METHODS: Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reversed phase latex agglutination (RPLA) were used to detect C perfringens enterotoxin in faecal specimens from 818 sporadic cases of diarrhoea. RESULTS: C perfringens enterotoxin was identified as a cause of sporadic diarrhoea in 56 of 818 (6.8%) cases. Diarrhoea was prolonged (three days or more) in most cases. Ages ranged from 3 months to 89 years, although most patients were over 60 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that C perfringens may be a cause of sporadic cases of diarrhoea when causes such as food consumption or cross-infection are absent, particularly in the elderly.

    https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp.45.7.609

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

      Request Permissions

      If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

      Linked Articles