One person has died and 20 others were admitted to hospital after an outbreak of botulism in Ohio following a potluck dinner at a church in the city.

It is learned that all the patients attended a potluck on Sunday at Cross Pointe Free Will Baptist Church in Lancaster, about 30 miles southeast of Columbus. The event was attended by up to 60 people.

According to Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster, five patients are in critical condition and 10 were hospitalized in Columbus. Antitoxin is on the way from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta "It is being sent in as quickly as we can get it," said Dr. Andrew Murry with the medical center.

"We are in the process of obtaining more information about these patients and our incident command team has assembled to handle this emergency," the hospital said in a press release.

Botulism can prove fatal, with symptoms typically beginning within 36 hours of consuming contaminated food. The infection can result in paralysis, double vision, difficulty swallowing and respiratory failure, "In this day and age botulism from food is fairly rare, generally it's canned foods," Murry said. "The fatality rate is usually fairly low."

It is however not contagious. "It is not a threat to our patients, visitors or staff or the community at large," Murry said.

"Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by a certain kind of bacteria," state Department of Health spokesman Russ Kennedy said.

Department spokeswoman Jennifer Valentine said the Fairfield County health department is investigating the matter and trying to find out how many people ate the contaminated food at the event.