botulism
Sign in to saveBotulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by botulinum toxin, which is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, and trouble speaking. This may then be followed by weakness of the arms, chest muscles, and legs. Vomiting, swelling of the abdomen, and diarrhea may also occur. The disease does not usually affect consciousness or cause a fever.
AI overview
Botulism is a rare but potentially deadly illness caused by a toxin produced by a specific bacterium that typically starts with weakness, blurred vision, and fatigue before progressing to affect the arms, chest, and legs. The disease matters because it can be serious enough to be life-threatening, though it generally does not cause fever or loss of consciousness.
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Key facts
- Medical condition (new).caption
- A 14-year-old boy with botulism, characterised by weakness of the eye muscles and the drooping eyelids shown in the left image, and dilated and non-moving pupils shown in the right image. This person was fully conscious.
- Medical condition (new).field
- Infectious disease, gastroenterology
- Medical condition (new).symptoms
- Weakness, trouble seeing, feeling tired, trouble speaking
- Medical condition (new).complications
- Respiratory failure
- Medical condition (new).onset
- 12 to 72 hours
- Medical condition (new).duration
- Variable
- Medical condition (new).types
- Foodborne, wound, infant, adult intestinal toxemia, inhalational, iatrogenic
- Medical condition (new).causes
- Clostridium botulinum
- Medical condition (new).risks
- Improperly canned, preserved or fermented foods; injection drug use (e.g. black-tar heroin); honey consumption in infants <1 year; contaminated wounds; high-dose cosmetic/therapeutic botulinum-toxin injections
- Medical condition (new).diagnosis
Article
36 sectionsContents
- Signs and symptoms
- Infant botulism
- Complications
- Cause
- Colonization of the gut
- Food
- Wound
- Inhalation
- Injection (iatrogenic botulism)
- Lawsuits about botulism against pharmaceuticals
- Mechanism
- Diagnosis
- Prevention
- Vaccine
- Treatment
- Antitoxin
- Prognosis
- Epidemiology
- United States
- United Kingdom
- China
- Qapqal disease
- Canada
- Ukraine
- Vietnam
- Other susceptible species
- Prevention in non-human species
- Vaccines in animals
- Use in biological warfare and terrorism
- United States
- Iraq
- Japan
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by botulinum toxin, which is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, and trouble speaking. This may then be followed by weakness of the arms, chest muscles, and legs. Vomiting, swelling of the abdomen, and diarrhea may also occur. The disease does not usually affect consciousness or cause a fever.
Botulism can occur in several ways. The bacterial spores which cause it are common in both soil and water and are very resistant. They produce the botulinum toxin when exposed to low oxygen levels and certain temperatures. Foodborne botulism happens when food containing the toxin is eaten. Infant botulism instead happens when the bacterium develops in the intestines and releases the toxin. This typically only occurs in children less than one year old, as protective mechanisms against development of the bacterium develop after that age. Wound botulism is found most often among those who inject street drugs. In this situation, spores enter a wound, and in the absence of oxygen, release the toxin. The disease is not passed directly between people. Its diagnosis is confirmed by finding the toxin or bacteria in the person in question.