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NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Subtype(s)

  • Botulism
  • Botulism, foodborne
  • Botulism, infant
  • Botulism, other

Clinical Description

An illness resulting from toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum that has infected a wound.

Laboratory Criteria For Diagnosis

  • Detection of botulinal toxin in serum, OR
  • Isolation of Clostridium botulinum from wound

Subtype(s) Case Definition

Case Classification

Confirmed

A clinically compatible illness that is laboratory confirmed among patients with no suspect food exposure and with a history of a fresh, contaminated wound in the 2 weeks before onset of symptoms

Related Case Definition(s)