By Ethan Covey
An outbreak of wound botulism in IV drug users in San Diego County resulted in nine cases of the rare illness, including one death.
All of the identified patients reported using black tar heroin. The CDC hypothesized that the 2017-2018 outbreak may have occurred due to contamination of one or more batches of the drug (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;67[5152]:1415-1418).
“Our investigation into this outbreak of wound botulism serves as a stark reminder of a rare but serious