Clostridium perfringens: Food poisoning and antibiotic-associated diarrhea

Abstract

Introduction Diseases caused by Ciostridium perfiingens were among the first described during the modem era of clinical bacteriology. The first report of C. perfringens food poisoning was in 1895, although only in 1977 was the cause, a 319amino acid, 35kDa enterotoxin (CPE), identified. During World War I the role of C. perfringens in gas gangrene of wounds became all too clear. Enterotoxemias caused by its p, E, and t toxins were described by 1945, but outbreaks were confined largely to livestock. Not until the 1980s did reports of spontaneous and antibiotic-associated diarrheas caused by CPE, but otherwise unrelated to food poisoning, tirst appear. This article will review both the food poisoning and non-food-poisoning presentations of diarrhea caused by CPE.