The topic I chose to talk about today is botulism. Botulism neurotoxin is one of the most lethal substances known to man. Not many people are aware of what it is and its negative side-effects.
What is Botulism?
3) Botulism is a neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulism. Botulism causes extreme and sometimes fatal food poisoning. Botulism was first identified in Germany in 1735. A person had eaten a German sausage and got food poisoning. This is how botulism got its name because botulism is derived from the Latin word for sausage. Incidence is rare in US but is of great concern because if not treated in time it can be fatal.
5) There are about 110 cases of botulism a year in the United States. About 5% of patients with botulism end up dying.
6) There are three types of botulism:
Wound Botulism
Infant Botulism
Food-borne Botulism
Sources:
Each of the types of botulism has a different source.
Wound Botulism-is acquired from an open sore and injury that has caused an opening in the skin, which has become infected with Clostridium Botulism.
Infant Botulism- happens when an infant eats food, usually honey, which has spores of Clostridium botulism. These spores will grow in the infant’s intestines and …show more content…
This is done by injecting the patient's serum or stool into the peritoneal cavity of mice. An equal amount of serum or stool from the patient is treated with multivalent antitoxin and injected in other mice. If the antitoxin-treated serum- or stool-injected mice live while those injected with untreated serum or stool die, then this is a positive test for botulism and is called the mouse inoculation test. The bacteria can also be isolated from the stool of people with food-borne and infant botulism, but this is not the best