Sudden Death of a Young Adult Associated with Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning

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2022-01-23 14:00:06

3Scientific Institute of Public Health, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium; Saint-Pierre Hospital and Etterbeek-Ixelles Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

7Laboratory of Food and Environmental Microbiology, Université Catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

A lethal intoxication case, which occurred in Brussels, Belgium, is described. A 20-year-old man died following the ingestion of pasta contaminated with Bacillus cereus. Emetic strains of B. cereus were isolated, and high levels of cereulide (14.8 μg/g) were found in the spaghetti meal.

On 1 October 2008, a 20-year-old man became sick after eating a meal of leftovers of spaghetti with tomato sauce, which had been prepared 5 days before and left in the kitchen at room temperature. After school, he warmed the spaghetti in the microwave oven. Immediately after eating, he left home for his sports activities, but he returned 30 min later because of headache, abdominal pain, and nausea. At his arrival, he vomited profusely for several hours and at midnight had two episodes of watery diarrhea. He did not receive any medication and drank only water. After midnight, he fell asleep. The next morning at 11:00 AM, his parents were worried because he did not get up. When they went to his room, they found him dead.

Legal examination determined the time of death, presumably at 4:00 AM, approximately 10 h after ingestion of the suspected meal. An autopsy could not be performed until 5 days later. Macroscopically, brownish and moderately softened liver and ascites (550 ml of citrine liquid) were found. The heart was macroscopically normal. A total lysis of the pancreas was also found, but it could not be excluded that this finding was due to the autopsy delay.