History of Botulism (Its effect on society) Botulism has been known ever since the early 1800’s. Botulism received its name from “Botulus”, the Latin word for sausage; because of a wave of poisoning from contaminated sausages. Though there haven’t been any major epidemics in history for botulism, they have been a few minor outbreaks that have been recorded. The first occurred in Wildbad, Germany when thirteen people ate a locally popular blood sausage that …showed first 75 words of 495 total…

…showed last 75 words of 495 total…food-borne botulism result from the paralysis of the respiratory muscles. If a person survives the paralysis stage, they will most likely be able to recover completely. If the victim has an early diagnosis or treatment of botulism antitoxins (neutralizes the Botulinus toxin), the percentage of recovery and survival increases largely. Often severe symptoms don’t develop until poison has already damaged the nervous system; thus, by this stage the botulism antitoxins are not fully effective.