MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - Three infants in Midland have contracted botulism in the past year.
Questions are now surrounding how this rare disease hit the Midland area.
It’s a sickness most commonly associated with honey but for three Midland babies who have never been in contact with honey, how did this happen?
Most of the time botulism is not deadly, especially for adults and even young children because the immune system can handle it.
However, for infants, the illness can be much more serious.
These are symptoms these parents witnessed firsthand.
Over the last five years, the State of Texas has only averaged about 10 infant botulism cases a year.
The City of Midland says at this point in the year they are unable to determine if this is an uptick in cases.
Another reason these cases are raising concern across the community is the close proximity of the infected babies, with all three families living within .5 miles of each other.
Despite this, the City of Midland says they don’t believe the babies contracted the disease in the same way.
This begs the question, is the City going to test for this potentially airborne bacteria?
Now these families want to raise awareness so that if there are more cases other parents can react quickly.
These babies were all treated for botulism with an anti-vax called Baby BIG that stops the bacteria from spreading, but it doesn’t heal the areas of the body that were already affected.
Thanks to early detection and quick action all three Midland babies are recovering.
CBS7 will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
