‘Foul-tasting’ almond milk behind rare Aussie botulism case
Doctors say antitoxin should be administered ‘urgently’ if botulism is suspected.
The taste of almond milk can be divisive, but a particularly ‘foul-tasting’ batch led Sydney doctors to diagnose the first local case of botulism from a commercially prepared product since 2007.
Their 61-year-old patient presented to the Royal North Shore Hospital with rapidly progressing ptosis, diplopia, ataxia and dysarthria, the team wrote in The Medical Journal of Australia.
Given his history of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia, plus the absence of an infective prodrome or symptoms of food poisoning, brainstem stroke was the primary differential diagnosis.
But the following day, the patient developed vomiting, dysphagia and severe respiratory distress that required intubation.
