Improvement in laboratory diagnosis of wound botulism and tetanus among injecting illicit-drug users by use of real-time PCR assays for neurotoxin gene fragments.

ABSTRACT: An upsurge in wound infections due to Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium tetani among users of illegal injected drugs (IDUs) occurred in the United Kingdom during 2003 and 2004. A real-time PCR assay was developed to detect a fragment of the neurotoxin gene of C. tetani (TeNT) and was used in conjunction with previously described assays for C. botulinum neurotoxin types A, B, and E (BoNTA, -B, and -E). The assays were sensitive, specific, rapid to perform, and applicable to investigating infections among IDUs using DNA extracted directly from wound tissue, as well as bacteria growing among mixed microflora in enrichment cultures and in pure culture on solid media. A combination of bioassay and PCR test results confirmed the clinical diagnosis in 10 of 25 cases of suspected botulism and

SUBMITTER: Akbulut D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1234055 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature