The world’s first outbreak of botulism was reported in 1793, in Germany – 13 cases with 6 fatal and was ascribed to tainted sausage.
The name botulism is derived from Latin termed botulus for sausage. Botulism food poisoning is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin, botulin, that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
Botulin is the most potent known toxin, blocking nerve function and leading to respiratory and musculoskeletal paralysis.
The toxin interferes with releases of acetylcholine from presynaptic motor and automatic nerve terminals, thereby disrupting neuromuscular transmission and autonomic synapse, resulting flaccid paralysis and autonomic dysfunction.
There are three main clinical presentations of botulism include:
Foodborne botulism is a form of foodborne illness and is caused by eating foods that contain the botulism toxin.
Wound botulism may be acquired from infected wounds or injection of illicit drugs.
Infant botulism is caused by consuming the spores of the botulinum bacteria, which then grow in botulism matambre botulism outbreak from garlic in oil the intestines and release toxin.
All forms of botulism can be fatal and are considered medical emergencies. Perhaps the best known type of the disease is foodborne botulism, where individual ingest the toxins in food.
Clostridium botulinum is a common bacterium in soil. It causes food poisoning because its heat-resistant spores may survive food preservation methods and produce neurotoxin in anaerobic, low acid (pH>4.6) conditions.
Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous as a public health problem because many people can be poisoned from a single contaminated food source.
In the United States, approximately 154 cases of botulism are reported annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of these, approximately 25% are foodborne, 72% are infant botulism, and the rest are wound botulism.
Outbreaks of foodborne botulism involving two or more persons occur during most years and moldy bread botulism usually are caused by eating contaminated home-canned foods.
Among cases attributed to commercial food processing, vegetables – pepper beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and beets, with or without meat were thought to be causative agents in approximately 70%, meat in 17% and fish in 13% 0f cases.
Foodborne botulism
