PA HEALTH DEPARTMENT TAKES ACTION ON INFANT BOTULISM

HARRISBURG—Responding to a request from Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf for public and professional education on infant botulism, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson has said that the Pennsylvania Health Department's Bureau of Epidemiology is developing an infant botulism fact sheet and will make health care professionals aware of the causes, symptoms, and treatment of the condition.

Greenleaf, who sponsored Senate Resolution 181 to encourage the Health Department to provide public education on infant botulism, said he became aware of the problem when a Fox Chase Cancer Center surgeon contacted him. The doctor told of his baby daughter's experience with infant botulism and asked the senator to provide for public information on the little-known condition.

Infant botulism can infect those under one year of age through ingestion of honey products or by inhalation of airborne Clostridium botulinum spores from dust and disturbed soils.

Construction and excavation in areas where such spores exist in the soil may result in release of the spores and inhalation by infants in the vicinity. High concentrations of the bacteria are found in soils in southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as in regions of California and Utah. Ninety percent of cases of infant botulism in the United States are reported from those areas.

Some of the most common signs of infant botulism are lethargy, constipation, loss of head control and/or breathing difficulties.

"I am grateful to Dr. Robert Uzzo for raising this issue after his daughter's recovery from infant botulism and I am grateful to Secretary Johnson for taking action to spread the word on this condition by means of a fact sheet that will be posted on the Department of Health's web site, as well as doing educational outreach on infant botulism with nurses, doctors, and other health care providers who treat infant children," Greenleaf said. "I am impressed with the Secretary's prompt response to this issue, and hope that the Health Department's outreach will make a difference for infant health."