Disclaimer - I am not, nor am I pretending to be any sort of medical expert. All I have done is compile the information I have learned from reputable sources for you to consider. One of the posts included here will have all the links to my references (I hope.) I do not include the chapter and verse because I encourage you to read the information yourself. There is much more to learn about foodborne illnesses, treatment, and more importantly for our potential survival the prevention and detection of foodborne illnesses. I am starting with botulism as it seems to be one of the most misunderstood foodborne illnesses.
If this is of any use to anyone, I am planning on exploring some of the other foodborne illnesses we could come in contact with. If it is not of any use to anyone, well at least I've practiced my keyboard skills.
Botulism is an illness caused by one of three nerve toxins of the clostridium bacteria group that occur naturally in our soil. There are certain conditions that must be met for the clostridium bacteria to cause botulism. We will look at those conditions later.
There are five types of botulism -
*Foodborne botulism - caused by eating foods with the botulism toxin (not just the spores.) This is the one we hear about the most.
*Wound botulism - an infection of a wound by the botulism toxin. At this time, with modern cleanliness practices available, most wound botulism infections occur at the site of injection of black tar heroin.
*Infant botulism - caused by eating the botulism spores that then thrive in the intestines and produce the toxin. This is the reason behind the "no raw honey for babies" that you hear about. After about a year old infants are not suseptible to this problem as their systems have developed sufficiently to keep the spores from "hatching" in their systems.
*Adult intestinal botulism - this is an extremely rare occurance, similar to infant botulism and only occurs in very medically compromised adults.
*Iatrogenic botulism - is literally an overdose of botulism toxin.
There are, on average, 145 cases of botulism in the U.S. each year. Of these, 65% (94 cases are infant botulism), 20% (29 cases) are wound botulism, and 15% (22 cases) are foodborne. The last two types on the list, adult intestinal and Iatrogenic, are so rare that statistically they just don't show up for practical purposes.
If this is of any use to anyone, I am planning on exploring some of the other foodborne illnesses we could come in contact with. If it is not of any use to anyone, well at least I've practiced my keyboard skills.
Botulism is an illness caused by one of three nerve toxins of the clostridium bacteria group that occur naturally in our soil. There are certain conditions that must be met for the clostridium bacteria to cause botulism. We will look at those conditions later.
There are five types of botulism -
*Foodborne botulism - caused by eating foods with the botulism toxin (not just the spores.) This is the one we hear about the most.
*Wound botulism - an infection of a wound by the botulism toxin. At this time, with modern cleanliness practices available, most wound botulism infections occur at the site of injection of black tar heroin.
*Infant botulism - caused by eating the botulism spores that then thrive in the intestines and produce the toxin. This is the reason behind the "no raw honey for babies" that you hear about. After about a year old infants are not suseptible to this problem as their systems have developed sufficiently to keep the spores from "hatching" in their systems.
*Adult intestinal botulism - this is an extremely rare occurance, similar to infant botulism and only occurs in very medically compromised adults.
*Iatrogenic botulism - is literally an overdose of botulism toxin.
There are, on average, 145 cases of botulism in the U.S. each year. Of these, 65% (94 cases are infant botulism), 20% (29 cases) are wound botulism, and 15% (22 cases) are foodborne. The last two types on the list, adult intestinal and Iatrogenic, are so rare that statistically they just don't show up for practical purposes.