Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 56, 73-74, 2003

To see a printable version of the article in the Adobe file format, click this [PDF] link.

Short Communication

A Botulism Case of a 12-Year-Old Girl Caused by Intestinal Colonization of Clostridium botulinum Type Ab

Hiroshi Kobayashi^1,2, Kohji Fujisawa^1,2, Yoshihiro Saito^1,2, Makoto Kamijo^1,2, Sakiko Oshima^1,2, Masakatsu Kubo^1,2, Yoshikatsu Eto², Chie Monma³ and Masaru Kitamura⁴*

¹Department of Pediatrics, Jikei University School of Medicine, Kashiwa Hospital, Chiba 277-0004, ²Department of Pediatrics, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo 105-8471, ³Department of Microbiology, the Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health, Tokyo 169-0073 and ⁴Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan

(Received April 11, 2003. Accepted May 16, 2003)

SUMMARY: We encountered a 12-year-old girl, who had contracted food-borne botulism, and subsequently suffered from obstinate constipation for more than half a year. Even on hospital day 122, Clostridium botulinum and its toxin were detected in her stool specimens. The potency of the toxin of the blood serum sampled before treatment was 20 mouse minimum lethal dose per ml. The toxin in the blood had a molecular size equivalent to that of type A botulinum neurotoxin. On hospital day 250, the patient's serum detoxified type A neurotoxin. We confirmed that the patient had food-borne botulism caused by C. botulinum type Ab, followed by intestinal colonization-type botulism.

*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. Tel: +81-3-5285-1111 ext. 2226, E-mail: kmasaru@nih.go.jp

Go to JJID Homepage                  Go to JJID 56 (2) Contents