Underdiagnosis of botulism as a cause of tragedy: A case report

Botulism has unique clinical picture; however, some of its manifestations, when analyzed separately, are similar to the manifestations of other, both infectious and noncommunicable diseases. This contributes to the occurrence of diagnostic errors because botulism is not one of the most common infectious diseases; as a result, most practitioners are familiar with the clinical picture of botulism purely theoretically and clearly insufficiently. The article analyzes the course of botulism in a group of family diseases when, at the first visit to specialists, botulism was diagnosed in any of the patients not receiving medical care. In addition, the causes and effects of prolonged toxemia (20 days) in one of the patients are discussed.