Foodborne Botulism, I Only Had Nacho Cheese: A Case Report

Abstract

A 32-year-old female presented to the emergency department with complaints of diplopia, followed by dyspnea, chest tightness, congestion, and dysphagia. The patient was resuscitated and initial investigations were done. Within a few hours of the admission, she started developing signs of respiratory failure and was intubated and placed on the mechanical ventilator. The patient denied any ingestion of exotic food, shellfish, raw meat, or raw fish. The patient also denied traveling to any exotic place or recent camping trips. The edrophonium tensilon test and lumbar puncture came out to be negative. The botulinum toxin test was positive, the patient was started on botulinum antitoxin, and the rest of symptomatic treatment was continued. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) tracked the events related to the presentation and found she had eaten nacho cheese from a gas station the day before the appearance of the symptoms. A total of 10 cases were associated with this source within days and one death was reported.