I didn’t know rattlesnake pills were a thing.

They are, and they made someone in Kansas sick with salmonellosis.

According to CDC, rattlesnake pills are often marketed as remedies for various conditions, such as cancer and HIV infection. These pills contain dehydrated rattlesnake meat ground into a powder and put into pill form.

Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicate that one person in Kansas became sick after taking rattlesnake pills purchased in Mexico. The ill person reported taking rattlesnake pills in the week before getting sick. Advanced laboratory testing called whole genome sequencing showed that the Salmonella that made the person sick matched the Salmonellafound in rattlesnake pills from Mexico collected in an earlier, unrelated investigation.