Clostridium sordellii Infection in Medical Abortion

A newly described, rare, lethal entity that affects previously healthy young people and has no known prevention or treatment constitutes a true public health nightmare. It also excites public attention and demands for action. The review of Clostridium sordellii infections by Aldape et al. [1] in this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases tells the beginning of an infectious disease story to which epidemiology and clinical medicine have not yet written an ending. The organism C. sordellii is an uncommon human pathogen, although it has been more thoroughly described in veterinary medicine. Recently, several dozen cases of human infection have been reported. The number of cases in the literature has accumulated more rapidly in recent years, suggesting that this condition, like other rare diseases, is more likely to be identified when knowledge of the syndrome is more widely disseminated. Perhaps the most dramatic of the cases