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Show Your Doctor Says . . . The following is one of a series of irticles written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of health, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah BOTULISM All too frequently the first indication in-dication of botulism is a newspaper report statinir that there were some "deaths from the disease". Botulism is a type of food poisoning caused by toxin which is produced by the perm, Clostridium botulinum, in improperly canned or preserved foods. This disease should be respected, but not feared, because it is preventable and may even be cureu after the diserse develops if prompt medical attention is obtained. This is by no means a common disease, as shown by the 503 cases and 337 deaths in the United States for the period 18JG to 1925, and the 6 cases and 4 deaths in Utah from 1U38 to 1949. The incubation period follows the ingestion of food and varies with the amount of food consumed. It is usually 18 to 36 hours in length, but may be longer. In contrast to other types of food poisoning, there pre few, if any, gastrointestinal gastro-intestinal symptoms with botulism. The central nervous system bears the brunt of the poisoning, and, in contrast to infectious diseases, thi3 illness does not produce a fever. The earliest symptoms consist con-sist of fatigue, headache, dizziness, and muscular weakness. Visual disturbances occur early they include in-clude dimness of vision, enlargement enlarge-ment of the pupil, and double vision. Throat, respiratory, and certain eye paralyses develop somewhat some-what later in the disease. The Clostridium botulinum grows in many different food-stuffs of both plant and animal origin. The most common offenders include vegetables and fruits such as olives, string beans, corn, peas, and bottled pork sausage. The disease seldom, if ever, results from eating fresh foods. Home canned foods, of course, are most often at fault. It is recommended that ' home canned foods be processed in a pressure cooker according to instructions. in-structions. A temperature of 248 F. for 10 minutes is required to kill the botulinus spores. This germ is quite frequently found in soil throughout the United States and other parts of the world, and in certain decayed matter. Therefore, it is likely to be found on vegetables, fruits and other foods. The Clostridium botulinum grows and produces toxin readily under a lo, oxygen content, a condition found in home canned products. Botulinus toxin is one of the most potent poisons known. In one outbreak the patient died after nibbling only a small portion from a string bean pod. In another case the victim succumbed suc-cumbed from merely tasting, not swallowing, a string bean pod. The botulinus toxin is destroyed by boiling for 15 minutes. This inactivates in-activates the texin, but it may reform in the left-over foods. Therefore, it is highly important to cook thoroughly left-over foods immediately before eating. Any questionable food should be destroyed. de-stroyed. Gas formation, bad odors, and bulging cans serve aa a warning warn-ing of food spoilage. Any canned food that looks mushy or does not appear right otherwise, even if there is not a foul odor, Bhould be discarded. Home canning should be carefully done in order to prevent pre-vent contamination of food by the botulinus organism, which gives birth to the deadly toxin. In summary, botulism can be prevented through proper .anning methods. The disease should be suspected if illness follows ingestion inges-tion of any questionable food. If this occurs, consult your family physician immediately, because the administration of anti-toxin may save your life!! |