BOTULISM AND BIOTERRORISM ATTACK:
WHAT TO DO by Eileen Nauman, DHM(
Permission is granted to distribute this to
anyone who wants it. This is
information from the Centers for Disease Control. At the end of this
article is information where you can contact them if you want. The
Centers for Disease Control have given the below information. I am
providing homeopathic information.
The other threat, besides chemical warfare
being dropped on us from a
plane flying over the city and releasing an agent, is BIOLOGICAL
WARFARE, which means "germs"--virus, bacteria or spores--that can
kill
us. Below is BOTULISM. Other articles to come will be on ANTHRAX and
PLAGUE. All these are the top 3 that terrorists like to use to create
hysteria and death.
BOTULISM AS A WEAPON OF WAR
Biological Weapon Botulism toxin is the most potent lethal substance
known to man (lethal dose 1ng/kg). Botulism toxin is made by the
bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
Botulinum toxin was
developed as an aerosol weapon by several countries.
No human data exist on the effects inhaling botulinum
toxin, but it may
resemble the foodborne syndrome.
If people have intentionally been exposed, in
a bioterrorist attack,
breathing in the toxin or ingesting the toxin via contaminated food or
water are the most likely routes of exposure that might lead to a
serious illness (foodborne botulism).
Spores of C. botulinum
are found in soil worldwide. Terrorists with
the technical capacity to grow cultures of the bacterium, and harvest
and purify the toxin could therefore use it as a bioterrorism
agent.
Contaminating food with botulism toxin could cause a devastating event.
THE DISEASE/BIOLOGICAL WEAPON
About 25 cases of foodborne botulism occur each year,
usually due to
improperly prepared home-canned or Alaskan Native foods. Outbreaks from
commercial products and foods prepared improperly in restaurants have
also occurred.
Botulism is a muscle paralyzing disease
caused by a nerve toxin that is
made by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum. The
toxin types most
commonly associated with human disease are types A, B, E.
There are three main kinds of botulism.
1. Foodborne
Botulism occurs when a person ingests PRE-FORMED toxin
that leads to illness within a few hours to days. Only foodborne
botulism is a public health emergency, because it could indicate that a
food is still available to other persons (besides the patient).
2. Infant botulism is a condition that occurs
in a small number of
susceptible infants each year. For unknown reasons the botulism
bacteria is able to grow in their intestines. Infant botulism is not a
public health emergency because the infants are not consuming food with
toxin; rather they are consuming C. botulinum spores
(which are
everywhere in the environment), but for unknown reasons these few
infants are susceptible to gut colonization.
3. Wound botulism is caused by the growth of
living botulism bacteria
in a wound, with ongoing secretion of toxin that causes the paralytic
illness. In the
in injecting drug users.
4. Distribution by terrorists either via
airplane over an area and
releasing it, or putting in our water or food supply. (EN)
SYMPTOMS OF BOTULISM
Symptoms of botulism include double vision, blurred vision, drooping
eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, muscle
weakness which always descends the body: first shoulders, then upper
arms, then lower arms, then thigh, calves, etc. Paralysis of breathing
muscles can cause a person to stop breathing and die, unless he/she is
assisted by a ventilator.
HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES
VISION; DIPLOPIA (K277) (105) : Aur., Gels., Hyos.,
Nat-m., Nit-ac., agar.
VISION; BLURRED (K271)(Dim)(Foggy)
(85) : Gels., Lac-c., Nat-m., acon.,
agar., anac.
EYE; FALLING of lids (K240) (67) : Gels., alum., bell., caust., lyc., morph.
THROAT; SWALLOWING; difficult (K467)(impeded)(impossible)(Food lodges)
(Obstruction; swallowing when) (212) : Am-c., Bar-c., Chin., Hyos.,
Kali-c., Lach.
MOUTH; DRYNESS (K403) (236)
: Acon., Ars., Ars-s-f., Bar-c., Bar-m.,
EXTREMITIES; WEAKNESS (K1224) (217) :
GENERALITIES; PARALYSIS (Weakness; paralytic)
(90) : Cocc., Lach.,
acon., alumn., arg-n., arn.
1. Gelsemium
2. Arsenicum album
3. Carbolicum acidum
4. Nux Vomica
5. Phosphorus If you feel you have been exposed
to a nerve/chemical
release by terrorist where you live, here's what you must do:
1. Get to the emergency room of your local
hospital as soon as humanly possible.
2. Check the below document for your
symptoms. Take the homeopathic
remedy that most closely parallels your symptoms.
POTENCY and DOSAGE
Potency ordered from a homeopathic pharmacy (or, if you buy a kit)
should be a 30C. Take these white pellets UNDER your tongue and let
them melt way. Do NOT take them with water. Take every 15 minutes
until you can receive emergency medical help.
If you cannot get to the
hospital. Take every fifteen minutes until the
symptoms go away. When they stop: STOP taking the remedy.
WHERE TO GO ONLINE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT EACH OF THESE REMEDY PICTURES
Contact Dr. Irish for this information!
HOW SOON DO THE SYMPTOMS COME ON?
For food borne botulism, symptoms begin from six hours up to two weeks
after eating toxin-containing food; most commonly the delay is about
12-36 hours. Infants with botulism appear lethargic, feed poorly, are
constipated, and have a weak cry and muscle tone.
TREATMENT FROM MEDICAL COMMUNITY
CDC maintains the national botulism anti-toxin supply. A physician
diagnosing a case of botulism and wishing to treat the patient with
anti-toxin must contact the CDC through their state health department.
These way public health officials are alerted
immediately about potential
cases of botulism. CDC provides clinical consultation to physicians for
botulism cases 24 hours a day, ships botulism antitoxin when needed.
If symptoms occur, individuals should seek
treatment. Botulism can be
fatal and should be considered a medical emergency.
The paralysis and respiratory failure that
occur with botulism may
require a patient to be on a breathing machine (ventilator) for weeks,
plus intensive medical and nursing care. The paralysis slowly improves,
usually over several weeks. If diagnosed early, food borne and wound
botulism can be treated with an antitoxin from horse serum which blocks
the action of toxin circulating in the blood. This can prevent patients
from worsening, but recovery still may take many weeks.
CLINICAL INFORMATION
The clinical syndrome of botulism, whether food borne, infant, wound, or
intestinal colonization, is dominated by the neurological symptoms and signs:
Incubation periods
For food borne botulism are reported to be as short as
6 hours or as long
as 10 days, (44) but generally the time between toxin ingestion and
onset of symptoms ranges from 18 to 36 hours. (45) The ingestion of
other bacteria or their toxins in the improperly preserved food or
changes in bowel motility are likely to account for the abdominal pain,
nausea and vomiting, and diarrhea that often precede or accompany the
neurological symptoms of food borne botulism. Dryness of the mouth,
inability to focus to a near point (prompting the patient to complain of
"blurred vision"), and diplopia are usually
the earliest neurological complaints.
If the disease is mild, no other symptoms may develop and the initial
symptoms will gradually resolve. The person with mild botulism may not
come to medical attention.
In more severe cases, however, these initial
symptoms may be followed by
dysphonia, dysarthria, dysphagia, and peripheral-muscle weakness. If
illness is severe, respiratory muscles are involved, leading to
ventilatory failure and death unless supportive care
is provided.
Recovery follows the regeneration of new neuromuscular connections. A
2- to 8-week duration of ventilatory support is
common, although
patients have required ventilatory support for up to
7-12 months before
the return of muscular function. (43)
Death occurs in 5%-10% of cases of foodborne botulism; early deaths
result from a failure to recognize the severity of disease or from
secondary pulmonary (lung) or systemic infections (blood), whereas
deaths after 2 weeks are usually from the complications of long-term
mechanical ventilatory management. (43)
Perhaps because infants are not able to complain
about the early effects
of botulinum intoxication, the neurologic
dysfunction associated with
infant botulism often seems to develop suddenly. The major
manifestations are poor feeding, diminished suckling and crying ability,
neck and peripheral weakness (the infants are often admitted as "floppy
babies"), and ventilatory failure. (21,24,34)
Constipation is also often seen in infants
with botulism, and in some,
has preceded the onset of neurologic abnormalities by
many days. Loss
of facial expression, extraocular muscle paralysis,
dilated pupils, and
depression of deep tendon reflexes have been reported more frequently
with type B than with type A infant botulism. (34)
Treatment with aminoglycoside
(prescription drug of choice by MD's when indicated)
antimicrobial agents may
promote neuromuscular weakness in infant
botulism (46) and has been associated with an increased likelihood of
the requirement of mechanical ventilation. (21,34)
Fewer than 2% of
reported cases of infant botulism result in death.
DIAGNOSIS
Botulism is probably substantially underdiagnosed.
The diagnosis is not
difficult when it is strongly suspected, as in the setting of a large
outbreak, but since cases of botulism most often occur singularly, the
diagnosis may pose a more perplexing problem. Findings from many
outbreaks have suggested that early cases are commonly misdiagnosed.
They may be diagnosed only retrospectively after death, when the
subsequent clustering of cases of botulism-like illness finally alerts
public health personnel to an outbreak of botulism.
Botulism should be suspected in any adult
with a history of acute onset
of gastrointestinal, autonomic (e.g., dry mouth, difficulty focusing),
and cranial nerve (diplopia, dysarthria,
dysphagia) dysfunction or in
any infant with poor feeding, diminished sucking and crying ability,
neck and peripheral muscle weakness, and/or ventilatory
distress.
MEDICAL TREATMENT
The mainstays of treatment of foodborne
and wound botulism are as follows:
1) administration of botulinum
antitoxin in an attempt to prevent
neurologic progression of a moderate, slowly
progressive illness, or to
shorten the duration of ventilatory failure in those
with a severe,
rapidly progressive illness;
2) careful monitoring of respiratory vital capacity and aggressive
respiratory care for those with ventilatory
insufficiency (monitoring of
respiratory vital* Except for antitoxin administration instructions,
other information included in antitoxin package insert is accurate.
IF YOU SUSPECT BOTULISM
State public health officials should then immediately contact CDC. If a
commercial food product is a suspected vehicle for botulism, USDA or the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration also should be notified.
Investigation of a suspected case of botulism includes an immediate
search for other possible cases and identification of suspected food
exposures, as well as confirming the diagnosis. If a number of people
are affected, a rapid and detailed epidemiologic
investigation is launched to assure the source is identified and
controlled. Diagnostic testing of both case specimens and foods should
be performed as needed.
REFERENCES:
** For more information about botulism immune
globulin, call the Infant
Botulism Prevention Program, California State Department of Health
Services, phone number (510) 540-2646.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
October 2000 Contact: CDC Media Relations