Botulism under the microscope
Botulism is a deadly disease, but thankfully one we are seeing less and less of due to our sophisticated medical care and overwhelmingly great knowledge of the human body. Regardless, it still claims the lives of five to ten percent of those who contract it, which is a sad reality that we must accept. The earlier you can identify that you may have botulism, the better your chances to successfully treat the disease and make a full recovery. The symptoms are very distinctive due to the rare nature of the disease.
Basically, botulism symptoms start out as signs of paralysis in the face. Drooping of the eyelids is considered one of the easiest symptoms to spot, but there are many others. Any loss of control in the mouth, both on the outside with problems moving the lips and the inside with any difficulty swallowing are both very typical bodily responses to botulism poisoning. As time goes on the disease will spread to the extremities causing full paralysis of the musculoskeletal system.
In the most severe cases of botulism, the muscles in the lungs will also shut down which causes a total respiratory failure. This symptom is the major cause of death among those inflicted, but only occurs if a lethal amount of the toxin is ingested or present in the body. The interesting thing about the symptoms is that while all of this is happening the person remains completely coherent and clear minded. No fever or any other kind of “classic” symptoms come into play with botulism. It is strictly the body’s reaction to a toxin that is invading and taking over the nervous system.
Infants are the group of people most affected by botulism, simply because the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and stomach have not propagated enough to stop any other kind of bacterial growth. Because of this the botulism bacteria is free to spread throughout an infant’s gastrointestinal tract and actually can become a much more severe case than many adults. There are around 90 cases of infant botulism every single year, but thankfully the mortality rate is rather low with infants due to their amazing ability to recover from many illnesses.
One of the primary ways that infants get botulism is through consumption of either honey or corn syrup, which is why doctors always recommend to never give it to a child under a year of age. It’s simply too big a risk to give them either of these substances and to be honest doesn’t do much good for them even if it was not infected. To mitigate the risk of botulism in adults, make sure you do not eat any preserved foods that smell bad, and you also throw out any cans that are past their expiration date or look overly damaged or distended. The gaseous buildup inside a can is a sign that the botulism bacteria has grown inside that particular can.
