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There are three main kinds of botulism:
All forms of botulism can be fatal and are considered medical emergencies. Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous as a public health problem because many people can be poisoned from a single contaminated food source.
In the United States an average of 110 cases of botulism are reported each year. Of these, approximately 25% are foodborne, 72% are infant botulism, and the rest are wound botulism. Outbreaks of foodborne botulism involving two or more persons occur during most years and usually are caused by eating contaminated home-canned foods. The number of cases of foodborne and infant botulism has changed little in recent years, but wound botulism has increased because of the use of black-tar heroin, especially in California.
Classic symptoms of botulism occur between 12-36 hours after uptake of the botulinum toxin, but they can occur as early as 6 hours or as late as 10 days. Those symptoms usually include dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, slurred speech, muscle weakness, double vision, vomiting, and severe diarrhea, along with a progressive muscle paralysis. These are all symptoms of the muscle paralysis caused by the bacterial toxin. If untreated, these symptoms may progress to cause paralysis of the arms, legs, trunk, and respiratory muscles. In all cases the toxin made by C. botulinum causes illness, not the bacterium itself.
Infant botulism is the most common form of the ailment in the United States. The mode of action of this form is through actual infection by germinating spores in the gut of an infant. Infection results in constipation, general weakness, loss of head control and difficulty feeding. Because of these symptoms, infant botulism is often referred to as floppy baby syndrome.
HoneyHoney is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. The flavor and color of the substance is largely determined by the type of the flowers from which the nectar is gathered. Common flavours of honey include or, corn syrupCorn syrup is a syrup made from maize, composed mainly of glucose. It is used to sweeten soft drinks, juices, ice cream, and many other mass-produced foods. Its liquid form keeps foods moist and prevents them from quickly spoiling. In many areas it is les, and other sweetenerA sweetener is a food additive which adds the basic taste of sweetness to a food. In Commonwealth English, "sweeteners" is usually used to refer to sugar substitutes. The most common sweetener is sucrose (table sugar). Other common sweeteners include corns are potentially dangerous for infants. This is because, when mixed with the non-acidic digestive juices of an infant, the human body temperature, and anaerobicAnaerobic is a technical word which literally means without air''. The presence or absence of air, or more precise the oxygen in the air, affects various chemical and biological reactions. One example is that wood which is totally immersed in water does n environment, creates an ideal medium for botulinum spores to grow and produce toxin. Botulinum spores are among the few bacteria that survive in honey, but they also are widely present in the environment. While these spores are harmless to adults, because of stomachIn anatomy, the stomach is an organ in the alimentary canal used to digest food. Generally, the stomach's primary function is not the adsorption of nutrients from digested food; this task is usually performed by the intestine. Latin names for the stomach acidFor alternative meanings see acid (disambiguation). An acid (represented by the generic formula AH is typically a water-soluble, sour-tasting chemical compound. An acid always has a pH of less than 7. It is a molecule or ion that contains hydrogen or thatity, an infant's digestive systemFor the Physics term 'GUT', please refer to Grand unification theory The gastrointestinal or digestive tract also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal or the gut is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, dige is not yet developed enough to destroy them, and the spores could potentially cause infant botulism. For this reason, it is advised that neither honey, nor any other sweetener, should be given to children until they are weaned.The leading explanation for why some infants become infected with C. botulinum, is that infants do not yet have sufficient numbers of resident microbiota in their guts to competitively exclude C. botulinum. Thus, without competition, C. botulinum is able to establish itself in the gut of an infant.