A person who has breathing failure or is paralyzed needs intensive medical care in a hospital. The paralysis slowly improves after several weeks. If discovered early, botulism obtained from food and wound botulism can be treated with an antitoxin. The antitoxin keeps the illness from becoming worse but does not speed recovery. Antitoxin is not used to treat babies with botulism.
People can die from botulism poisoning because of breathing failure.
Someone with severe botulism may need a breathing machine and medical care for several months. Those who survive botulism poisoning may have tiredness and shortness of breath for years. People who do home canning should follow very clean methods to reduce contamination of food and carefully follow home-canning instructions. Since the bacterial toxin is destroyed by heat, people who eat home canned foods should boil the food for 10 minutes before eating it. Never eat foods in cans or jars that are bulging, discolored, or have swollen lids or caps.