Pig Bel

Pig Bel is a form of acute, segmental, necrotizing enteritis presenting as a common and life-threatening disease among the people (particularly the children) of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It relates to the consumption of pig meat and is thought to be caused by Clostridium welchii type C (an organism not usually present in the human intestine), the organism being transmitted to man by means of contaminated pig meat. Pig Bel resembles the diseases called "Darmbrand" which occurred in Northern Germany in the years that immediately followed World War II. Darmbrand was associated with a Clostridium welchii infection, possibly precipitated by malnutrition. It disappeared within a few years of its recognition. Conditions that closely resemble the clinical and pathological features of Pig Bel have been reported from Uganda and Thailand. In these countries, only a few cases have been encountered and they have not been associated with the eating of pig meat or with a clostridial infection.