Treatment for Botulism Found, Doctors Report
A new drug was used to successfully treat botulism, a deadly form of poisoning for which there is no known cure, doctors said in a paper presented Saturday.
The paper, presented by Dr. James Howard of the University of North Carolina’s Medical School, outlined the treatment of a patient suffering from the condition, which causes the lungs to stop functioning.
The woman, Karen Whitney, 37, of Carrboro, N.C., was unable to breath on her own last January after being hit by the poison, which is caused by improperly preserved food.
She was given the experimental drug 3-4 diaminopyridine and improved steadily over the next five weeks, a far shorter time than the months of supportive care it takes survivors of the attacks to recover while on respirators.
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