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Botulism can be fatal in five to ten percent of people who are affected. [64] However, if left untreated, botulism is fatal in 40 to 50 percent of cases. [73] Infant botulism typically has no long-term side effects but can be complicated by treatment-associated adverse events. The case fatality rate is less than two percent for hospitalized ...
C. botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, spore-forming bacterium. [1] It is an obligate anaerobe, the organism survives in an environment that lacks oxygen.However, C. botulinum tolerates traces of oxygen due to the enzyme superoxide dismutase, which is an important antioxidant defense in nearly all cells exposed to oxygen. [7]
Clostridium botulinum can produce botulinum toxin in food or wounds and can cause botulism. This same toxin is known as Botox and is used in cosmetic surgery to paralyze facial muscles to reduce the signs of aging; it also has numerous other therapeutic uses.
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[3] [10] To avoid botulism it is recommended that pickled pepper products be processed in boiling water if they are to be stored at room temperature; improperly processed peppers led to the largest outbreak of botulism in U.S. history. [3] As with pickled cucumbers, there are multiple ways of pickling peppers.
Spores of Clostridium botulinum can survive cooking at 100 °C (212 °F), [5] and, in the anaerobic neutral pH storage environment, result in botulism. Often when making potted meat, the meat of only one animal was used, [3] [2] although other recipes, such as the Flemish potjevleesch, used three or four different meats (animals).
When a canned food is sterilized insufficiently, most other bacteria besides the C. botulinum spores are killed, and the spores can germinate and produce botulism toxin. [30] Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness, leading to paralysis that typically starts with the muscles of the face and then spreads towards the limbs. [31]
Botulinum toxin, or botulinum neurotoxin (commonly called botox), is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and related species. [24] It prevents the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from axon endings at the neuromuscular junction, thus causing flaccid paralysis. [25]