Botulism: An Emerging Infectious Disease

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The disease, botulism, which is caused by Clostridium botulinium, is an emerging infectious disease. Clostridium botulinium is a bacterium that produces a neurotoxin that causes botulism. The bacterium is spore-forming, and anaerobic, meaning it does not need oxygen to grow. There are three main types of illnesses that Clostridium botulinium typically cause: Food-borne botulism, infant botulism, and wound botulism. Unbeknownst to common knowledge, infant botulism is the most common form of the disease, consisting of seventy-five percent of the reported cases of the disease (Chan-Tack, & Bartlett, 2010).

As stated in Chan-Tack and Bartlett’s article Botulism, “The incidence of foodborne botulism is approximately 24 cases per year. The incidence of wound botulism is 3 cases per year. The incidence of infant botulism is 71 cases per year, with a mean age of 3 months.” (2010). In addition, in merely fifteen percent of the Clostridium botulinium outbreaks are the toxin type undetermined. The first case descriptions of botulism were reported by Dr. Justinus Kerner, a German physician, in 1822. He had conducted experiments on himself and laboratory animals, which gave him this case findings (Taillac, & Kim, 2010).

Food-borne botulism was the first form of the botulism toxin to be identified. It has a very high morbidity with prolonged intensive health care required for a full recovery (Taillac, & Kim, 2010). Also, people who have been infected with food-borne botulism can sometimes have muscle weakness or other similar issues for up to a year after the first onset of symptoms. Food-borne botulism is typically caused by improperly canned food. The symptoms of food-borne botulism include, but are not limited to: double vision...

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...nited States keeps a stockpile of botulism antitoxin that can be delivered in mass quantities in less than twelve hours (Taillac, & Kim, 2010). Botulism is an emerging infectious disease that should be taken very seriously.

Works Cited

Chan-Tack, K. M., & Bartlett, J. (2010, March 29).

Botulism. Retrieved from

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/213311-overview

Davis, B. (2009, February 23). Botulism. Retrieved from

http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/botulism

Davis, B. (2009, February 23). Botulism antitoxin. Retrieved from

http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/botulism-antitoxin

Improve treatments for botulism. (2010, May 13). Retrieved from

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/botulism/Pages/improvingBotulismTreatment.asp

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Taillac, P. P., & Kim, J. (2010, March 23). Cbrne – botulism. Retrieved from

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/829125-overview

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