Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of foodborne botulism based on the materials of the Republican Clinical Infectious Disease Hospital of Bishkek City

Cases of foodborne botulism are reported annually in the Kyrgyz Republic in the form of sporadic and group outbreaks. Botulism is a rare infectious disease and due to the specific clinical picture, presents great difficulties for clinicians to diagnosis. The aim of the study was to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of foodborne botulism. The case histories of 23 patients diagnosed with foodborne botulism hospitalised at the Republican Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital between 2022 and 2023 were retrospectively analysed. As a result of analysing case histories, it was found that the transmission factor was mainly home-canned fruits and vegetables. In more than 60% of cases, there was a delay in patients seeking medical help. In 26.1% of cases, clinicians initially made erroneous diagnoses. Adults (87%) and predominantly males (61%) predominated among the patients. Recently, however, botulism has been registered among children. The analysis showed that the patients had typical clinical symptoms of botulism with the development of symmetrical descending paralyses of cranial nerves and symptoms of myoplegia. The results of laboratory research showed that in Kyrgyzstan botulism is caused predominantly by botulinum toxins type A, B, E, at the same time empirical approach in the treatment of botulism with anti-botulinum serum using monovalent sera of these types is reasonable. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment of foodborne botulism reduces the risk of fatal outcome and improves the prognosis of the disease. Increasing public awareness is a preventive measure for the disease