Botulism: symptoms and treatment

Contents

• Symptoms of botulism

< li class="article__contents-item" data-type="h2">Treatment of botulism

• Consequences of the disease

< br />Botulism is an acute disease caused by the action of botulinum toxins and characterized by primary damage to the central and autonomic nervous system.
There are four types of botulism — food botulism (occurs when consuming products containing botulinum toxin), wound botulism (produced in infected tissues), childhood botulism (produced in the gastrointestinal tract of a child) and botulism of unspecified nature (it is not possible to establish a connection between the disease and food products). succeeds). 99% of cases of the disease are attributed to food botulism.
The most common cause of foodborne botulism is the consumption of homemade preparations. The causative agents of botulism live only in the absence of oxygen. That is why people often get sick with botulism after consuming hermetically sealed canned food, home-made pickles and smoked foods, where air does not penetrate into the thickness of the product and favorable conditions are created for the preservation of the pathogen. At the same time, the appearance, taste and smell of the products do not change; sometimes swelling of the cans may be observed.

The causative agents of botulism are widespread in nature. The permanent habitat of the spores of these bacteria is the soil, from where they enter the water, onto fruits and vegetables, into food products, fodder, and then into the intestines of humans and animals. Spore destruction can be achieved by boiling in water for six hours at 100°C or 20 minutes at 120°C, or by special treatment methods.

The incubation period of foodborne botulism is from 2-4 hours to 2-3 days. The disease begins acutely after eating canned mushrooms and vegetables; salted or dried fish, smoked meats containing toxin.

Symptoms of botulism

The first manifestations of botulism are often gastrointestinal disorders (nausea, vomiting, etc.), which disappear with the appearance of neurological symptoms. Sometimes the disease manifests itself immediately with neurological symptoms — paralysis. Usually, vision is impaired first (fog before the eyes, double vision, dilated pupils, lack of pupillary reactions, and sometimes paralysis of the extraocular muscles). An early complaint is dry mouth. Then swallowing disorders develop (choking and pouring liquid through the nose, up to the complete impossibility of it), voice and speech (hoarseness, nasality, slurred speech, extreme manifestations — loss of articulation).

Treatment of botulism

If botulism is suspected, all patients are recommended to undergo emergency hospitalization in an infectious diseases hospital, the infectious diseases department of a multidisciplinary medical organization, or in the case of severe forms, in an intensive care unit. In the absence of medical attention, the outcome of botulism can be death due to acute respiratory failure.

Specialized medical care is provided in a hospital setting by infectious disease doctors and other medical specialists and includes prevention, diagnosis, treatment of diseases and conditions that require the use of special methods and complex medical technologies, as well as medical rehabilitation.

Consequences of the disease

Recovery occurs slowly, usually over a month or more. Performance is restored even longer; myopia that occurs in the acute period of the disease also persists for a long time.
To prevent the disease, it is necessary to follow some rules.

1. 1. You cannot buy home-canned products in hermetically sealed jars on the market or from random people. Often, products for sale are prepared, processed and stored without proper hygiene and temperature conditions.
2. 2. You cannot buy home-smoked products from random people: large hams, fish — silver carp and other fish that live in the bottom layers of water are especially dangerous. From the intestines of fish, if not properly processed, spores easily penetrate into the thickness of the muscles.
3. 3. You cannot prepare canned food in hermetically sealed jars from mushrooms, meat, fish, carrots at home , beets, purslane and dill. These products are difficult to wash from small particles of soil and spores of botulism pathogens.
4. 4. Foods with signs of spoilage and rot cannot be preserved.
5. 5. You cannot violate the generally accepted cooking technology: reduce the amount of salt, vinegar, reduce the cooking time.
6. 6. You cannot eat canned food from bulging cans.

It is also important to remember some rules for storing and eating canned food: you should store homemade canned food only in the refrigerator or in the cellar; Before consumption, canned food made from hazardous products must be subjected to sufficient temperature treatment for 15-20 minutes. Boiling will destroy the toxin if it has formed in the canned food. Children are especially sensitive to botulinum toxin. They can be given home-made canned food only after preliminary heat treatment. If canned food poisoning occurs, it is not recommended to throw away the packaging with the remains of the product — they must be sent for laboratory testing. This will help to quickly identify the source, make a diagnosis and begin proper treatment.

The material was prepared based on information and open sources