This Week in Toxicology

All suspected cases of botulism should be reported to the CDC and your local health department A recent outbreak of botulism in Northern California has been linked to gas station nacho cheese.  At the time of writing this, at least 9 people have been hospitalized for this rare disease and one has died.  But what is botulism? The History The first reported cases of food-borne botulism were described between 1817 and 1822 by Justinus Kerner.  Dr. Kerner described, in detail, a syndrome of descending paralysis that was linked to eating contaminated blood sausage.  It is from this link that we got the name botulism, which comes from the Latin word for sausage botulus .  The bacterium responsible for botulism, Clostridium botulinum , was first discovered in 1895 by the microbiologist Emile Pierre van Ermengem after an outbreak linked to inadequately cured ham.  The toxin was first isolated in 1928 and the toxin's ability to block neuromuscular transmis...

Introduction to This Week in Toxicology Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to discuss current events related to the field of medical toxicology.  Our goal is to provide context and history behind the toxins being discussed in the news.  This will be interspersed with discussions of commonly encountered overdoses.  All of our posts will be researched to the best of our abilities and backed up by specific references. It is intended as an educational tool and all contributors will be either board certified in medical toxicology or medical toxicology fellows (physicians being trained in the specialty of medical toxicology).  Nothing in this blog should be considered direct medical advice and should not be substituted for specific recommendations from a poison center or board certified medical toxicologist.  With this in mind, all posts will contain the following statement: The information in this blog is not intended for use in diagnosing a...