One person has died and nine people were rushed to hospital after an outbreak of botulism in broccoli.
Musician Luigi Di Sarno, 52, collapsed and died after buying a broccoli and sausage sandwich from a kiosk in Diamante, Calabria in southern Italy.
Patients being treated in intensive care on the Annunziata hospital in Cosenza include two 17-year-olds and two women of their 40s.
Di Sarno was driving back to his home in Napoli when he began to feel unwell.
He ended up stopping in Lagonegro in Potenza province, where he sadly passed away.
Local health authorities have activated emergency measures after the botulism outbreak was tracked to a shipment of jarred broccoli in oil.
Cases of the rare and life-threatening disease were present in other Italian regions.
What’s botulism?
Botulism is a rare and sometimes life-threatening disease brought on by toxins produced by the clostridium botulinum bacteria.
Historically contracted attributable to improperly canned food, the toxins attack the nervous system, resulting in muscle paralysis.
More recently within the UK, patients were diagnosed with botulism linked to unlicensed anti-wrinkle injections.
Symptoms include blurred vision, fatigue and difficulties respiration.
Around 5 to 10 per cent of cases are fatal, in response to the NHS.
Because a majority of doctors have never encountered it, initial misdiagnosis just isn’t unusual.
It got here as Roberta Pitzalis, 38, died from complications after eating a guacamole from a stand at a gastronomic festival in Cagliari, Sardinia.
In accordance with La Repubblica, her condition had appeared to stabilise before she suddenly deteriorated.
An 11-year-old boy who also attended the Monserrato Latina festival and had eaten a taco with guacamole, was transferred by helicopter to Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
He stays in a stable condition but has yet to make a recovery.
Authorities in Cagliari have launched an investigation into the outbreak.
Experts are advising people to exercise caution when buying dangerous foods and avoid eating canned or jarred products where the protection button has popped up, indicating the container has not been properly sealed.
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