Health officials have issued a stark warning to people in the wake of a young woman being left paralyzed after eating soup.
Claudia de Albuquerque Celada, 23, is currently fighting for her life on a ventilator in hospital.
Claudia, a Brazilian native, was working in Aspen, Colorado, through an exchange program at the time she fell ill.
The 23-year-old reported suffering with paralysis, dizziness, double vision and shortness of breath, and was hospitalized in February.
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She's remained in Swedish Medical Center in Denver on a ventilator ever since.
Two weeks after her hospital admission, Claudia was diagnosed with botulism.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe the illness as 'a rare but serious illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body's nerves and causes difficulty breathing, muscle paralysis, and even death'.
As to what caused Claudia's bout of illness, health officials believe it could stem from soup.
Claudia's said to have purchased a pre-package soup from a major retailer in the US and, while tests of soup samples from the same grocery store came back negative for botulism, it's believed the way the Brazilian native stored the soup could have caused her illness.
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She may have also failed to reheat it properly.
Now Pitkin County Health department has issued a warning to people to ensure that they're adequately reheating their meals, as well as urging them to 'reassess their food handling practices'.
Further discussing Claudia's case, a representative at Pitkin County Health told the Daily Mail: "Because an outbreak was ruled out, we really focus on the prevention aspect.
"Because there wasn't a common source of exposure that impacted a larger swatch of the population, or if there were multiple cases associated, we really look at food handling as likely being the cause of the infection."
Health officials added that they're quite confident that the issue didn't come from the soup product itself, but that it's 'nearly impossible to definitively say at what stage there might have been that breakdown'.
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As Claudia remains in the US, her sister, Luísa Albuquerque, has revealed the Denver hospital's plans to jet her back to Brazil to be with her family.
“We think that recovery close to family and friends is much faster. Comparing the costs between staying here and returning to Brazil, the return is still cheaper,” her sister said on social media.
It allegedly costs $10,000 a day to keep her in the Denver-based hospital.
With this in mind, the family are fundraising via Vakinha to pay for Claudia's ever-growing medical bills. They've so far only raised 225.149,91 Brazilian Real (US $43).
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