Staphylococcal Gastroenteritis

The staphylococcal food-poisoning or food-intoxication syndrome was first studied in 1894 by J. Denys and later in 1914 by M.A. Barber, who produced in himself the signs and symptoms of the disease by consuming milk that had been contaminated with a culture of Staphylococcus aureus. The capacity of some strains of S. aureus to produce food poisoning was proved conclusively in 1930 by Dack et al.²⁸ who showed that the symptoms could be produced by feeding culture filtrates of S. aureus. Although some authors refer to food-associated illness of this type as food intoxication rather than food poisoning, the designation gastroenteritis obviates the need to indicate whether the illness is an intoxication or an infection.