One Hispanic folk medicine is the ingestion of dried rattlesnake powder. An immunodeficient patient is at risk for developing potentially fatal salmonellosis if ingesting a rattlesnake preparation infected with a Salmonella species.
Clinical features:
(1) history of ingestion of a dried rattlesnake preparation (powder, meat, etc.), typically packed in gelatin capsules
(2) immunosuppression or immunodeficiency in the patient, especially HIV disease
(3) gastroenteritis or sepsis with isolation of a Salmonella species
(4) isolation of the same species from culture of the dried rattlesnake preparation
If a patient develops Salmonellosis and the cause is not immediately obvious, then an inquiry into folk medicine exposures is indicated.
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