1979 Volume 53 Issue 9 Pages 409-416
Detection of Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin from fecal specimens of the food poisoning cases were performed by reversed passive hemagglutination (RPHA) technique. A total of 130 fecal specimens from 13 outbreaks which occurred in Tokyo during the period from 1963 through 1978 was used for the test. The enterotoxin was detected from 109 out of 130 specimens. The RPHA titer of the toxin in the feces ranged from 1: 100 to 1: 25, 600.
The fecal specimens collected from 1 to 2 days after a food poisoning outbreak were able to detect the toxin, however, 5 days after illness was negative.
Nearly, the fecal specimens from which enterotoxin was detected were found to count greater than 106/g of Clostridium perfringens.
In contrast, none of the fecal specimens from healthy subjects tested were positive for the toxin.
The direct detection of enterotoxin in the feces of patients with the food poisoning would be used as a new epidemiological tool.
