Table 3.
Clinical and Epidemiologic Features of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks Caused by Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, and Staphylococcus aureus, United States, 1998–2008
| Feature |
Bacillus cereus
|
Clostridium perfringens
|
Staphylococcus aureus
|
All Outbreaks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | Suspected | Confirmed | Suspected | Confirmed | Suspected | ||
| Incubation perioda,b | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| median, h (IQR) | 5 (2–12) | 5 (2–9) | 11 (9–12) | 11 (9–13) | 4 (3–4) | 3 (2–5) | 7 (3–11) |
|
| |||||||
| Symptomsa, median % cases (IQR) | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Diarrhea | 97 (69–100) | 100 (83–100) | 100 (96–100) | 100 (97–100) | 89 (71–100) | 100 (73–100) | 100 (87–100) |
|
| |||||||
| Abdominal cramps | 78 (58–100) | 87 (50–100) | 80 (67–96) | 86 (67–100) | 72 (50–87) | 100 (55–100) | 83 (62–100) |
|
| |||||||
| Vomiting | 75 (40–100) | 61 (33–100 | 9 (0–20) | 6 (0–17) | 87 (74–100) | 100 (50–100) | 50 (8–100) |
|
| |||||||
| Fever | 0 (0–12) | 0 (0–25) | 5 (0–13) | 0 (0–11) | 9 (0–28) | 0 (0–23) | 5 (0–15) |
|
| |||||||
| Duration of illnessa,b | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Median, h (IQR) | 21 (12–24) | 18 (12–24) | 24 (16–25) | 24 (14–27) | 15 (7–24) | 24 (12–25) | 23 (12–24) |
|
| |||||||
| Location of preparationc | n = 51 | n = 168 | n = 223 | n = 251 | n = 144 | n = 277 | n = 1114 |
|
| |||||||
| Restaurant or deli | 34 (67) | 155 (92) | 100 (45) | 167 (67) | 64 (44) | 240 (87) | 760 (68) |
|
| |||||||
| Caterer | 5 (10) | 2 (1) | 40 (18) | 36 (14) | 17 (12) | 4 (1) | 104 (9) |
|
| |||||||
| Home or private residence | 1 (2) | 4 (2) | 20 (9) | 19 (8) | 24 (17) | 6 (2) | 74 (7) |
|
| |||||||
| Correctional facility | 2 (4) | 1 (1) | 27 (12) | 4 (2) | 5 (3) | 2 (1) | 41 (4) |
|
| |||||||
| School | 2 (4) | 2 (1) | 9 (4) | 5 (2) | 5 (3) | 6 (2) | 29 (3) |
|
| |||||||
| Grocery store | 1 (2) | 0 (0) | 3 (1) | 4 (2) | 3 (2) | 9 (3) | 20 (2) |
|
| |||||||
| Otherd | 6 (12) | 4 (2) | 24 (11) | 16 (6) | 26 (18) | 10 (4) | 86 (8) |
|
| |||||||
| Location of consumptionc | n = 51 | n = 164 | n = 233 | n = 267 | n = 140 | n = 275 | n = 1130 |
|
| |||||||
| Restaurant or deli | 20 (39) | 117 (71) | 60 (26) | 125 (47) | 33 (24) | 185 (67) | 540 (48) |
|
| |||||||
| Home or private residence | 11 (22) | 31 (19) | 27 (12) | 34 (13) | 20 (14) | 48 (17) | 171 (15) |
|
| |||||||
| Workplace, not cafeteria | 3 (6) | 4 (2) | 16 (7) | 16 (6) | 12 (9) | 5 (2) | 56 (5) |
|
| |||||||
| School | 2 (4) | 2 (1) | 18 (8) | 12 (4) | 10 (7) | 8 (3) | 52 (5) |
|
| |||||||
| Church or other religious facility | 1 (2) | 1 (1) | 16 (7) | 8 (3) | 13 (9) | 4 (1) | 43 (4) |
|
| |||||||
| Correctional facility | 2 (4) | 1 (1) | 26 (11) | 4 (1) | 6 (4) | 2 (1) | 41 (4) |
|
| |||||||
| Othere | 12 (24) | 8 (5) | 70 (30) | 68 (25) | 46 (33) | 23 (8) | 227 (20) |
Data are presented as No. (%) unless otherwise specified.
Abbreviation: IQR, interquartile range.
Proportion of outbreaks with complete reporting: incubation period (87%), diarrhea (92%), abdominal cramps (86%), vomiting (87%), fever (68%), and duration of illness (71%).
5th–95th percentiles (confirmed etiology): incubation period, B. cereus: 2–28 hours, C. perfringens: 7–15 hours, S. aureus: 2–7 hours; duration of illness, B. cereus: 6–48 hours, C. perfringens: 10–48 hours, S. aureus: 4–60 hours.
Restricted to outbreaks reporting a single setting of preparation or consumption.
Other includes church or other religious setting (18 outbreaks), camp (7), hospital or nursing home (6), fairs and festivals (4), workplace, not cafeteria (4), banquet facility (3), picnic (3), daycare facility (2), workplace cafeteria (2), other (37).
Other includes picnic (18 outbreaks), fairs and festivals (14), hospital or nursing home (11), office (11), banquet facility (10), camp (10), daycare facility (3), workplace cafeteria (3), wedding (2), other (145).