1887
  1. Home
  2. Eurosurveillance
  3. Volume 22, Issue 24, 15/Jun/2017
  4. Article
Surveillance and outbreak report Open Access
Like 0
Download

Abstract

Botulism is a rare but severe neuroparalytic disease caused by botulinum toxins. Because of its high potential impact on public health, botulism is a closely monitored communicable disease in Europe. In Italy, which has one of the highest incidence rates in Europe (0.03 cases per 100,000 population), botulism is monitored through a case-based passive surveillance system: the front-line physician who diagnoses a suspected case must notify the Local Health Units immediately, and the Ministry of Health's office within 12 hours. From 1986 to 2015, 466 confirmed cases of botulism were recorded in Italy (of 1,257 suspected cases). Of these, 421 were food-borne (the most frequently seen form of botulism due to the consumption of improperly home-canned foods), 36 were infant botulism, which accounts for ca 50% of all these types of cases registered in Europe, six were wound-related and three were due to adult intestinal colonisation. This scenario suggests that stronger efforts should be made towards raising public awareness of the risk of food-borne botulism, especially with respect to home-preserved foods, as well as improving the training of front-line medical personnel, to ensure that a quick and accurate diagnosis of botulism can be made.

© Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550
2017-06-15
2025-07-19
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/22/24/eurosurv-22-24-2.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Sobel J. Botulism. Clin Infect Dis. 2005;41(8):1167-73.  https://doi.org/10.1086/444507  PMID: 16163636 
  2. Anniballi F, Lonati D, Fiore A, Auricchio B, De Medici D, Locatelli CA. New targets in the search for preventive and therapeutic agents for botulism. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2014;12(9):1075-86.  https://doi.org/10.1586/14787210.2014.945917  PMID: 25089560 
  3. Rossetto O, Pirazzini M, Montecucco C. Botulinum neurotoxins: genetic, structural and mechanistic insights. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2014;12(8):535-49.  https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3295  PMID: 24975322 
  4. Peck MW. Biology and genomic analysis of Clostridium botulinum. Adv Microb Physiol. 2009;55:183-265, 320.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2911(09)05503-9  PMID: 19573697 
  5. Dembek ZF, Smith LA, Rusnak JM. Botulism: cause, effects, diagnosis, clinical and laboratory identification, and treatment modalities. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2007;1(2):122-34.  https://doi.org/10.1097/DMP.0b013e318158c5fd  PMID: 18388640 
  6. Peck MW. Clostridium botulinum and the safety of minimally heated, chilled foods: an emerging issue? J Appl Microbiol. 2006;101(3):556-70.  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2006.02987.x  PMID: 16907806 
  7. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Annual Epidemiological Report 2012. Reporting on 2010 surveillance data and 2011 epidemic intelligence data. Stockholm: ECDC; 2013. Available from: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/Annual-Epidemiological-Report-2012.pdf
  8. Anniballi F, Chironna E, Astegiano S, Fiore A, Auricchio B, Buonincontro G, et al. Foodborne botulism associated with home-preserved turnip tops in Italy. Ann Ist Super Sanita. 2015;51(1):60-1. PMID: 25857385 
  9. Fenicia L, Anniballi F. Infant botulism. Ann Ist Super Sanita. 2009;45(2):134-46. PMID: 19636165 
  10. Squarcione S, Prete A, Vellucci L. Botulism surveillance in Italy: 1992-1996. Eur J Epidemiol. 1999;15(10):917-22.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007661927843  PMID: 10669126 
  11. Ministry of Health. Sorveglianza, prevenzione e misure di controllo del botulismo. [Surveillance, prevention and control of botulism]. Circular no. 21834-P of 12 October 2012. Roma: Ministry of Health; 2012. Italian. Available from: http://www.iss.it/binary/cnrb/cont/Circolare_Sorveglianza_prevenzione_e_misure_di_controllo_del_botulismo_2012_10_12.pdf
  12. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Case definition for public health surveillance. MMWR. 1990;39(RR-13):6-7.
  13. Italian Ministry of Health. Misure di prevenzione e controllo delle intossicazioni da botulino [Measures for prevention and control of botulism]. Circular no. 9 of 1 July 1996. Rome: Ministry of Health; 1996. Italian. Available from: http://www.iss.it/binary/cnrb/cont/Circolare.Botulino.1996.pdf 1996
  14. Commission of the European Communities. Decision 2002/253/EC of 19 March 2002 laying down case definitions for reporting communicable diseases to the Community network under Decision No 2119/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. 2002. Official Journal of the European Union. Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:086:0044:0062:EN:PDF
  15. Commission of the European Communities. Decision 2009/540/EC of 10 July 2009 laying down case definitions for reporting communicable diseases to the Community network under Decision No 2119/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. 2009. Official Journal of the European Union. Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32009D0540&from=EN
  16. International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO/IEC 17025:2005. General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. 2005. Geneva: ISO; 2005. Available from: https://www.iso.org/standard/39883.html
  17. National Reference Centre for Botulism. CNRB.30.001. Metodo per la ricerca di clostridi produttori di tossine botuliniche e per la ricerca di tossine botuliniche. [Method for the detection of BoNT-producing Clostridium and botulinum toxins]. [Accessed: 1 Aug 2016]. Italian. Available from: http://www.iss.it/binary/cnrb/cont/CNRB30_001_rev1.pdf.
  18. National Reference Centre for Botulism. CNRB31.001. Metodo per la ricerca di produttori di tossine botuliniche mediante multiplex real-time PCR (Method for the detection of BoNT-producing Clostridium through multiplex real-time PCR). [Accessed 1 Aug 2016]. Italian. Available from: http://www.iss.it/binary/cnrb/cont/CNRB31_001_rev1.pdf
  19. Aureli P, Di Cunto M, Maffei A, De Chiara G, Franciosa G, Accorinti L, et al. An outbreak in Italy of botulism associated with a dessert made with mascarpone cream cheese. Eur J Epidemiol. 2000;16(10):913-8.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011002401014  PMID: 11338122 
  20. Fenicia L, Anniballi F, Aureli P. Intestinal toxemia botulism in Italy, 1984-2005. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2007;26(6):385-94.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-007-0301-9  PMID: 17516104 
Botulism in Italy, 1986 to 2015
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Fabrizio+Anniballi&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Anniballi Fabrizio</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Bruna+Auricchio&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Auricchio Bruna</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Alfonsina+Fiore&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Fiore Alfonsina</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Davide+Lonati&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Lonati Davide</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Carlo+Alessandro+Locatelli&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Locatelli Carlo Alessandro</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Florigio+Lista&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Lista Florigio</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Silvia+Fillo&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Fillo Silvia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Giuseppina+Mandarino&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Mandarino Giuseppina</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Dario+De+Medici&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">De Medici Dario</a></span>. Botulism in Italy, 1986 to 2015. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2017;22(24):pii=30550. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 08 Aug 2016;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 03 Feb 2017 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.24.30550
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error