Four hours after eating custard at a wedding banquet, several guests develop sudden nausea and vomiting without significant diarrhoea or fever. All recover within 24 hours. The responsible toxin is best described as:

• A Preformed, heat-stable enterotoxin produced during bacterial growth in the food ✓
• B Heat-labile enterotoxin produced in the intestine after colonisation
• C Shiga-like toxin elaborated after intestinal adherence
• D Neurotoxin absorbed preformed from the food

Explanation

Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning results from five or more heat-stable enterotoxins (SEA to SEE among others) preformed in contaminated food, especially dairy and egg products left at room temperature. Because the toxin is ingested ready-made, the incubation period is short at 1 to 6 hours and vomiting predominates. Option B describes C. perfringens food poisoning, which has a longer incubation of 8 to 16 hours and diarrhoea as the main feature. Option D describes botulism.

Reference: Jawetz, Melnick and Adelberg's Medical Microbiology, 27th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.