Clostridium Pathogenicity

Clostridium dijficile, described in older texts as of little significance as a pathogen if present in the gut, may, after therapy with antibiotics such as clindamycin or ampicillin, remain uninhibited, grow and produce toxins which give rise to a serious condition known as pseudomembranous colitis. The organism will usually succumb to vancomycin. 

Weber, D. J., Rutala, W. A., Miller, M. B., Huslage, K., and Sickbert-Bennett, E. (2010). Role of hospital surfaces in the transmission of emerging health care-associated pathogens Norovirus, Clostridium difficile, and Acinetobacter species. Am. ]. Infect. Control 38, S25-S33. 

Another important necrotizing skin and soft tissue infection is clostridial myonecrosis (gas gangrene). Clostridial myonecrosis can develop spontaneously but most often occurs after trauma. Clostridium perfringens is the most common causative pathogen. 

Clostridium perfringens Pathogenic bacterium that causes toxin-mediated pulmonary syndrome. 

Stool culture for pathogens, notably salmonel-lae and shigellae, and examination for the exotoxin of Clostridium difficile in pseudo-membranous colitis, are important considerations in acute disease. C. difficile requires oral vancomycin or metronidazole treatment, and giardiasis generally responds to metronidazole. 

In products prepared without pasteurization, nonsporeforming as well as sporeforming pathogens should be considered as potential hazard. With mildly eooked minimally processed food, the pathogens of greatest concern are the psyehrotrophie nonproteolytie types of Clostridium botulinum and certain strains of B. cereus [74]. 

---