Relationship between the Incidence of infant botulism and the presence of botulinum-toxin producing clostridia in the soil of Argentina from 1982-2005

LÚQUEZ C , BIANCO MI, SAGUA MD, BARZOLA CP, DE JONG LIT, DEGARBO SM, FERNÁNDEZ RA

JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGY

Año: 2007 vol. 5 p. 279 - 286

Infant botulism is the most common form of human botulism in some countries including Argentina. However, its transmission has not been completely elucidated. In Argentina, 366 laboratory-confirmed infant botulism cases were reported between March 1982 and December 2005. The average annual incidence was 2.2 per 100,000 live births. All 108 cases diagnosed in our laboratory had botulinum toxin producing organisms in their feces, 96.3% also had botulinum toxin in feces, and 69% had detectable botulinum toxin in their serum. Biochemical tests showed uniformity among the botulinum toxin-producing clostridia isolated from infant botulism cases and soil samples. A positive relationship between presence of botulinum spores in soil and illness incidence was observed in the northeast and west regions but not in the central, south and northwest regions. In the northwest and central regions, there was a relatively high occurrence of botulinum spores in the soil but low incidence of the disease. Type A botulinum toxin was detected in all infant botulism cases and also it was the toxin type most prevalent in the soil. Despite the presence of B and F types in the soil, there were no reports of infant botulism cases by these types in Argentina between 1982 and 2005. The journal is indexed/included in EMBASE http://www.jpneurology.org/index.html