Botulism.ppt

* * Foodborne botulism occurs when the preformed neurotoxin is ingested. The most common source of the preformed toxin is contaminated food, usually from improperly home-canned vegetables or fermented fish. Fifty percent of food-borne outbreaks in the US are caused by type A toxins. The most commonly isolated neurotoxin is type A for canned foods and type E for improperly fermented fish products. * This graph depicts the trends of foodborne botulism cases in the U.S. from 1982-2002. In 1983, 28 persons in Illinois obtained food-borne botulism from a batch of sautéed onions. Twelve required ventilator support, however no deaths occurred (MMWR 1984:33(2):22-23). During 1950-2000, Alaska recorded 226 cases of food-borne botulism from 114 outbreaks. All were Alaska Natives and were associated with eating fermented foods. In 1994, an outbreak at a Greek restaurant in Texas affected 30 persons from improperly stored foil-wrapped baked potatoes. The 2001 Texas outbreak resulted in 39 cases of foodborne botulism from persons eating commercially produced chili sauce that had been improperly stored. Overall botulism is a rare disease, but it can be fatal and every case of botulism is treated as a public health emergency. Graph from the Summary of Notifiable Diseases 2002, CDC website. * The most common form of human botulism occurs in infants. Annual incidence in the US is two cases per 100,000 live births. Spores are ingested, germinate, then release their toxin and colonize the large intestine. It occurs predominantly in infants less than 1 year old (94% are less than 6 months old). The spores are obtained from various sources such as honey, food, dust, and corn syrup. * This line graph shows the reported number of cases of infant botulism from 1982 to 2002. Infant botulism is the most common type of botulism in the United States; there were a total of 69 cases reported to the CDC in 2002. Cases are sporadic and risk factors remain largely unknown. Graph is from the Su