Food-poisoning due to Cl. welchii

Abstract

THE report of the Medical Research Council for the year 1951-2 records that one of the most recent additions to the list of recognized causative organisms of food-poisoning is a heat-resistant variant of Cl. welchii. The present paper describes an outbreak of food-poisoning in an army camp in which there is evidence to presume that Cl. welchii was responsible. In a comprehensive study of clostridial food-poisoning, Hobbs, Smith, Oakley, Warrack and Cruickshank (1953) pointed out that, as early as 1895, Klein isolated Cl. welchii from stools obtained in two epidemics of diarrhrea, but that it was not until the last decade that evidence has been forthcoming to incriminate the organism more convincingly as a possible cause of much hitherto non-specific food-poisoning. They note, for example, that no adequate cause was found in 36 per cent. of the 2,431 outbreaks of food-poisoning recorded for 1949. Smither (1953) investigated 90 unselected cases of gastro-enteritis in general practice, and he could isolate no recognized pathogens from 71 of his patients in this series. He was convinced that a heat-resistant staphylococcal enterotoxin was the commonest cause of mild gastro-enteritis, but he stated that no special bacteriological techniques were employed in his investigations and it appears that his specimens were not examined for Cl. welchii.