What to know
- Presentation Day/Time: Tuesday, April 22, 9:00–10:25 am
- Presenter: Tanviben Patel, PhD, MPH, EIS officer assigned to the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases
What did we do?
- A rare cause of laboratory-confirmed botulism is iatrogenic botulism, which occurs following injection of botulinum toxin (BoNT) for therapeutic or cosmetic reasons. We identified patients who received botulism antitoxin (BAT) for suspected iatrogenic botulism to determine common characteristics as a first step in identifying probable cases.
What did we find?
- Using data from CDC’s National Botulism Surveillance System for 1995–2023, we identified 26 BAT releases for iatrogenic botulism, with complete clinical features reported in 22 cases.
- The median age was 45 years and half of the cases were among females.
- Common clinical features were trouble swallowing (69%), perceived muscle weakness (69%), drooping of the upper eyelid (58%), and shortness of breath (58%).
- Twenty patients had four or more clinical features, and three had all 10 of the most common clinical features of botulism. All 22 patients reported one or more symptoms consistent with both adverse reactions of BoNT and iatrogenic botulism.
Why does it matter?
- In the United States, iatrogenic botulism lacks a probable case definition which makes characterizing non-laboratory confirmed cases challenging. This study is an important first step in creating a national probable case definition which will allow us to better understand the true burden of iatrogenic botulism.
***This presentation has updated data that will be shared at the EIS Conference.
Abstract Category: Botulism