News tagged with botulism
New explanation for nature's hardiest life form
Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. Spore-forming bacteria, present almost ...
Nov 12, 2009 |
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FACT CHECK: Mass bird, fish deaths occur regularly
(AP) -- First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 ...
Jan 06, 2011 |
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Llama proteins could play a vital role in the war on terror
Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) have for the first time developed a highly sensitive means of detecting the seven types of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) simultaneously.
Jan 21, 2010 |
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Nose-Spray Vaccine Against Botulism Effective in Early Tests
(PhysOrg.com) -- A preclinical study found a new nasal spray vaccine to provide complete protection against a major botulism toxin, according to a study published today in the Nature journal Gene Therapy. ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Jan 09, 2009 |
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FDA warns of botulism with unapproved use of Botox
(AP) -- Health officials warned doctors and patients Thursday about potentially deadly risks of using the anti-wrinkle drug Botox and similar drugs for unapproved uses to treat certain types of muscle spasms.
Medicine & Health / Medications
Apr 30, 2009 |
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Biologists discover an extra layer of protection for bacterial spores
Bacterial spores, the most resistant organisms on earth, carry an extra coating of protection previously undetected, a team of microbiologists reports in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology. Their findings offer ...
May 06, 2010 |
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How Botulism Paralyzes Nerve Cells: New Details Revealed
(PhysOrg.com) -- New structures of a botulism toxin interacting with a mimic of the nerve-cell protein it destroys suggest new ways to block this often-fatal interaction. Indeed, the mimic molecules have such ...
Jun 22, 2009 |
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Botulism
Botulism (Latin, botulus, "sausage") also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish.
The toxin enters the human body in one of three ways: by colonization of the digestive tract by the bacterium in children (infant botulism) or adults (adult intestinal toxemia), by ingestion of toxin from foods (foodborne botulism) or by contamination of a wound by the bacterium (wound botulism). Person to person transmission of botulism does not occur.
All forms lead to paralysis that typically starts with the muscles of the face and then spreads towards the limbs. In severe forms, it leads to paralysis of the breathing muscles and causes respiratory failure. In light of this life-threatening complication, all suspected cases of botulism are treated as medical emergencies, and public health officials are usually involved to prevent further cases from the same source.
Botulism can be prevented by killing the spores by pressure cooking or autoclaving at 121 °C (250 °F) for 3 minutes or providing conditions that prevent the spores from growing. The toxin itself is destroyed by normal cooking processes - that is, boiling for a few minutes. Additional precautions for infants include not feeding them honey.
For more information about Botulism, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
