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تسجيل

Bacillus cereus

المؤلف:  Peter Chin-Hong, Elizabeth A. Joyce, Manjiree Karandikar, Mehrdad Matloubian, Luis Alberto Rubio, Brian S. Schwartz, Warren Levinson

المصدر:  Levinsons Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology: A Guide to Clinical Infectious Diseases (2024)

الجزء والصفحة:  18th E , P129

2026-10-10

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 Disease

B. cereus causes gastroenteritis (food poisoning). Transmission Spores on grains such as rice survive steaming and rapid frying. The spores germinate when rice is kept warm for many hours (e.g., reheated fried rice). The portal of entry is the gastrointestinal tract.

Pathogenesis

B. cereus produces two enterotoxins. The mode of action of one of the enterotoxins is the same as that of cholera toxin (i.e., it adds adenosine diphosphate [ADP] ribose, a process called ADP ribosylation, to a G protein, which stimulates adenylate cyclase and leads to an increased concentration of cyclic AMP within the enterocyte). The mode of action of the other enterotoxin resembles that of staphylococcal enterotoxin (i.e., it is a superantigen).

Clinical Findings

There are two syndromes. (1) One syndrome has a short incubation period (4 hours) and consists primarily of nausea and vomiting, similar to staphylococcal food poisoning. (2) The other has a long incubation period (18 hours) and features watery, nonbloody diarrhea, resembling clostridial gastroenteritis.

Laboratory Diagnosis

This is not usually done.

Treatment & Prevention

Only symptomatic treatment is given. There is no specific means of prevention. Cooked rice should not be kept warm for long periods.