Laboratory-confirmed case of toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans in the United Kingdom

Abstract

On 15 February 2007, the United Kingdom’s Respiratory and Systemic Infection Laboratory confirmed isolation of a toxigenic (toxin-producing) Corynebacterium ulcerans from a pharyngeal sample taken from a man in his mid-fifties in North Yorkshire, England. The man’s symptoms included a five-week history of pharyngitis, laryngitis, fever and abdominal pain.

Investigations of 2 Cases of Diphtheria-Like Illness Due to Toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans

“…In this report, C. ulcerans was not isolated from any close contacts (human or animal), and this finding is consistent with other case reports [3][4][5][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. Nevertheless, close face-to-face contacts of patients should receive postexposure chemoprophylaxis after nasopharyngeal and throat swab specimens are obtained for culture and should be placed under surveillance for a week for evidence of disease [51].…”

“…As shown in table 2, respiratory diphtheria-like illnesses caused by toxigenic strains of C. ulcerans are increasingly reported from developed countries [3][4][5][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. C. ulcerans accounted for 21 (58%) of 36 human toxin-producing isolates of Corynebacterium species in the United Kingdom from 1997 through 2002 [42], 3 (33%) of 9 isolates in Canada from 1999 through 2003 [43], and 1 (33%) of 3 isolates in Italy from 1990 through 2001 [44].…”

External Quality Assessment for the Determination of Diphtheria Antitoxin in Human Serum

“…It is worth noting that C. ulcerans infections have been reported worldwide in recent years, and fatal infections have been recorded (5,8,15,23,25). As the morbidity of diphtheria is almost entirely due to diphtheria toxin, protection against disease is dependent on antibodies against the toxin (2,21).…”

Difteria pelo Corynebacterium ulcerans: uma zoonose emergente no Brasil e no mundo

“…The mean age of the individuals with C. ulcerans (38 years) was higher than the mean age of those with C. diphtheriae (15 years). In addition, Table 1 shows that the individuals with C. ulcerans were older (mean of 53 years), with a large number over 60 years, which contrasts strongly with the age profi le of As presented in Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2, C. ulcerans has been a growing cause for concern among the public health authorities in many countries: England, 25,113 France, 1 Germany, 100 Netherlands, 108 Italy, 110 Switzerland, 39,56 Denmark, 75 Japan, 44 Canada 17 and the United States. 12,13,107 Only fi ve cases of human infection were documented prior to the 1990s, and these were in England and Denmark.…”