Symptoms associated with which of the following diseases are due to production of an EXOtoxin that affects the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves, etc.) ?

a. polio

b. botulism

c. rabies

d. variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)

e. the symptoms of all of these diseases are due to neurotoxin production

B

Explanation:

Botulism is a classical example of a exotoxin-mediated disease.

When C. Botulism grows in food, for example, and you eat it, it is the toxins that were produced that gives you the disease, not the bacteria per se.

A very characteristic presentation of this is infants that contract botulism from the soil (were the toxins are, but not the bacteria). Infants are much more susceptible to botulism because adults GI tract is mature enough to protect from the toxins, but infants usually cannot.