Clostridium Botulism

Fecal Transplantation more effective than an additional course of first line Vancomycin and Metronidazole antibiotic treatment?: A Literature Review

Clostridium perfringens are bacteria that produce harmful toxins to humans. Clostridium perfringens and its toxins are found everywhere in the environment, including soil, dust and, animals. but human infection is most likely to come from eating food that is contaminated with Clostridium perfringens in it. Food poisoning from Clostridium perfringens is very common, but is typically not too severe, and is often mistaken for the “24-hour flu”.

Clostridim difficile was first isolated in1935 by George and his colleagues from a stool found in a healthy infant by the name of Hall and O’Toole (Heinlen and Ballard, 2010). Yet in 1978, C.difficile was known to be associated as disease in human’s antibiotic-associated diarrhea (Heinlen and Ballard, 2010). It is 2 types of C. difficile: one that exists in spore form and the other in vegetative form. Depending on the type of form it exist in, allows it to grow in a certain environment. It is also a gram positive rod bacterium. When Clostridim difficile exist in a spore form, it can live in harsh conditions and in common sterilization techniques (Heinlen and Ballard, 2010). When C. difficile exist in spore form, it will be resistant to temperature

A new strain of Clostridium botulinum has been discovered that has caused many problems. To begin, this discovery is important as this strain of Clostridium botulinum is responsible for the deadly illness, botulism. As a result, the scientists that discovered this new strain, they decided to keep their findings to themselves and not to to the public. Not to mention that another reason why this new strain of Clostridium botulinum is important is because it is one of the first to be identified in 40 years. Ultimately, the finding of the new strain of Clostridium botulinum is important as it could affect the future effectively.

The first case of foodborne botulism was in Ellezellesin, Belgium in December 14, 1895. Thirty-four musicians had a meal at a local inn and all consumed a ham that had been infected by Clostridium Botulinum. Following the meal, all the musicians experienced visual disturbances, generalized weakness, shortness of breath, and difficulty speaking (Maki). Three of the musicians died over seven days and the organs of the musicians who died were given to Emile-Pierre-Marie Van Ermengem, a professor of microbiology and a physician at Ghent (Maki). He conducted a clinical, toxicological, and bacteriologic investigation on the bacteria (Maki). He found that the pig had been slaughtered four months before being served to the musicians and was cut into two separate hams. The ham served at the inn, the one the musicians got sick from, had no signs of microscopic decay but bacteria was found(Maki). The second ham, which the musicians didn’t eat, did not

Clostridium difficile or more commonly called C. difficile or C. diff is a spore producing rod shaped bacterium that can cause infections of which result in a broad spectrum of disease ranging from mild diarrhea and fever to pseudomembranous colitis and life threating inflammation of the colon. C. difficile commonly located in the feces of humans and is spread though spores. Over the last 20 years the prevalence of healthcare-associated C. difficile infection (CDI) has increased to an estimated prevalence of colonization as high as 50% in hospitalized patients. (Cohen et al., 2010) This rise in prevalence is associated with new epidemic strains of C. diff that, are causing in an increase of incidence and disease severity. C. difficile infections are most commonly associated with healthcare facilities like hospitals and long-term care facilities and are also the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in the healthcare setting. With the disease severity on the rise people who are most at risk are generally the ones already in the hospital and have lower immune response. C. difficile’s main rout of transmission is through direct or indirect contact with spores on a contaminated surface. After contact whether a person develops C. difficile or not, is directly connected with a person’s immune response. If the disease is contracted there are a variety of treatments available. Prevention before contraction is the main source of struggle with C. difficile especially in the

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium that can be found in soil, feces, and water. There are four major toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon and iota) and five strains of C. perfringens (A-E) that cause a variety of symptoms such as food poisoning, gas gangrene, and severe neurological disease in sheep and other ruminants. The latter will be the primary focus of this research paper.

Clostridium botulinum has strains ranging from A through E. Humans can get Type E Botulism if the toxin is ingested by eating an infected fish or animal (NYDEC 2015). Infection by botulism does not occur due to swimming in waters where affected fish or wildlife is found. However, cooking may not destroy the toxin, so it is recommended that ingestion of fish or game that show signs of illness be avoided. Symptoms of illness in birds include inability to hold their head up (drowning,) poor posture (dragging wings while standing,) and inability to fly. Affected fish usually die quickly, may swim erratically near the surface of the water, and are often seen washed up on shore.

Clostridium botulinum is a bacterium that produces dangerous toxins under low-oxygen conditions. Clostridium botulinum will not grow in acidic conditions, and therefore the toxin will not be formed in acidic foods. Combinations of low storage temperature and salt contents and/or pH are also used to prevent the growth of the bacteria or the formation of the toxin. Even though the spores of clostridium botulinum are not easily damaged by heat, the toxin made by bacteria growing out of the spores under anaerobic conditions is destroyed by boiling. Therefore, ready-to-eat foods in low oxygen-packaging are more frequently involved in botulism. Prevention of foodborne botulism is based on good practice in food preparation particularly preservation and hygiene. Commercial heat pasteurization may not be sufficient to kill all spores and therefore the safety of these products must be based on preventing bacterial growth and toxin making. Salt content combined with refrigeration temperatures will prevent the growth of the bacteria and formation of toxin.

Food-borne botulism is the next type. It is a harmful bacterium that thrives in environments with little to no

Clostridium botulinum is part of the family Clostridiaceae and more specifically, the genus Clostridium. They are rod-shaped, anaerobic bacterium. Because it’s in the Clostridium genus, it is a gram-positive bacterium. This means in addition to a plasma membrane, there is a thick layer of peptidoglycan. Also, the transportation is a direct secretion across the membrane instead of needing additional machinery to cross it like gram-negative does. This bacterium is a spore forming bacteria. These spores can contaminate foods such as fruits, vegetables, and honey. These spores are resistant to high temperature, above 100°C, chemical disinfectants and UV or gamma irradiation. This makes it difficult to eradicate the spores once formed. The bacterium itself can also be present

Clostridium perfringens is a thick cell-walled, spore producing bacterium able to thrive without oxygen and the second most common source of foodborne illness in the United States. A few strains of C. perfringens produce toxins such as Alpha toxin, which is known for causing vasoconstriction— the constriction of blood vessels, causing dramatic blood pressure increase— blood clots, and low cardiac output along with Beta 1 toxin causing acute hemorrhagic cell death in avian, and Beta 2 toxin is known to cause stomach flu among cattle, equine, and swine. Even fewer strains produce the far rarer C, D, and E toxins, all sporting similar symptoms. In humans, symptoms of infection from C. perfringens are vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramping, diarrhea,

Many countries use the fermentation method in order to preserve or enhance the flavors of foods. However, the result of fermentation can also lead to drastic symptoms. For instance, the article “Food-Borne Paralysis from Eating Home-Pickled Eggs” from an Outbreak 37 article is about a 68-year-old man having symptoms involving paralysis and muscle weakness after eating the home-pickled eggs that he had made. This is one example of what we call Clostridium Botulinum. Clostridium Botulinum is a rod-shaped bacterium with a terminal endospore. This pathogen grows best around room temperature to warm areas and loves the environment that has soil. They are also gram-positive bacteria. There are three types of Clostridium Botulism: foodborne, infant botulism, and wound. These different types of botulism have different symptoms, causes, preventions, and treatments. C. Botulinum has spores that releases toxins and can germinate and affect other organisms. This neurotoxin is highly toxic which can make a person have paralysis. Originally, there are more than four different types of botulism, but those other types of botulism do not affect human’s health.

The disease, botulism, which is caused by Clostridium botulinium, is an emerging infectious disease. Clostridium botulinium is a bacterium that produces a neurotoxin that causes botulism. The bacterium is spore-forming, and anaerobic, meaning it does not need oxygen to grow. There are three main types of illnesses that Clostridium botulinium typically cause: Food-borne botulism, infant botulism, and wound botulism. Unbeknownst to common knowledge, infant botulism is the most common form of the disease, consisting of seventy-five percent of the reported cases of the disease (Chan-Tack, & Bartlett, 2010).

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