UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: Botulinum Toxin

Keywords: botulinum toxin, paralysis, heroin (PubMed Search)

Posted: 7/14/2007 by Fermin Barrueto, MD (Emailed: 7/8/2007) (Updated: 3/28/2024)
Click here to contact Fermin Barrueto, MD

Botulinum Toxin Most potent toxin on the planet where 7 picograms IV are lethal to a human Characterized by a descending flaccid paralysis w/o fever bulbar findings 1st Weapon of Mass Destruction but also seen in the IVDA Heroin population Black Tar Heroin outbreak with necrotic ulcers that produced C. botulinum o Most recently in Washington DC 2003 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Wound botulism among black tar heroin users--Washington, 2003. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003;52(37):885-6.