Botulism - a rare but still present, life-threatening disease.

Botulism caused by toxins of Clostridium botulinum and other neurotoxic clostridia is a rare but life-threatening disease with neurological symptoms. Food-borne botulism (food poisoning) is the most common type worldwide; rarely, wound botulism, infant botulism, or botulism of unknown etiology may also occur. Botulism is a very rare disease in the Czech Republic as well, with only nine cases reported since 2008 (EPIDAT). These were mostly sporadic cases of food-borne botulism except a small family outbreak with three cases due to the consumption of homemade pork pate (2013). This outbreak prompted the creation of a national standby supply of life-saving anti-infective drugs in Prague. This article reviews the etiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and therapy of botulism.

Verotoxigenic (enterohaemorrhagic) Escherichia coli in infants and toddlers in Czechoslovakia.

The results of the investigation indicate that verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) belonging to enteropathogenic and other serogroups including Escherichia coli O157:H7 or H- are important enteropathogens in infants and toddlers in Czechoslovakia. As to enteropathogenic serotypes, verotoxin (VT) production was proved most frequently in strains of serogroup O26, and also O111 and O128. Diseases caused by them were as a rule manifested by febrile watery diarrhoea with mucus in the stool. In two of five infants with Escherichia coli O26 :H11 with VT1 production in titres of greater than or equal to 1:512 (blood was present) in the stool and one suffered from marked abdominal pain. In one infant haemorrhagic colitis due to Escherichia coli O157:H- was found. Haemolytic uraemic syndrome associated with VTEC of serogroups O157, O26, O18, O5 and O1 with VT1 and/or VT2 was observed in six children including five who contracted the disease during an outbreak in a small town, and the source of infection was probably contaminated water. Five children recovered and one died; the postmortem examination revealed haemorrhagic colitis and necrosis of the renal cortex. Haemorrhagic colitis caused by Escherichia coli O157 in infants and toddlers differed from the course hitherto described in older subjects by fever and the presence of mucus in the stools.