Volume 43- No. 38
by lyle e davis Remember when you and I were kids? Every time we’d cut our finger or foot, every time we’d get a scratch on a piece of barbed wire, how someone, usually mom or dad, certainly a teacher or a school nurse, would say ... “you get right to the doctor and get a tetanus shot. Do you want to get lockjaw?” That’s what they called tetanus in those days: lockjaw. And because of those who cared, lockjaw, or tetanus, is almost unheard of in America today. Not so in much of the rest of the world. In many thirdworld and undeveloped countries, tetanus remains a major problem. Of particular concern to a lot of us is something called maternal neonatal tetanus, or, MNT. This form of tetanus is vicious. It causes new born The Paper - 760.747.7119
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September 20, 2012
babies to suffer excruciating pain; so much so that the mother is unable to hold, not even able to touch, or kiss, her child. The touch is way too painful. Chances are, the baby will die . . . but only after enduring agonizing pain. Chances are mom will die as well. Tetanus is a rare but often fatal disease that affects the central nervous system by causing painful muscular contractions. It begins when tetanus bacteria enter the body, usually through a wound or cut exposed to contaminated soil. Tetanus is easily preventable through vaccination. Tetanus causes convulsive muscle spasms and rigidity that can lead to respiratory paralysis and death. It is sometimes called "lockjaw" because one of the most common symptoms is a stiff jaw, unable to be opened.
Sometimes, tetanus affects only the part of the body where the infection began, but in almost all of reported cases, it spreads to the entire body. The incubation period from the time of the injury until the first symptoms appear ranges from two to 50 days. When symptoms occur early, the chance of death is increased. Tetanus is not contagious. Tetanus is caused by a bacteria called Clostridium tetani, whose spores (the dormant form) are found in soil, street dust, and animal (or even human) feces. Tetanus spores germinate in the body, producing a highly poisonous neurotoxin in the blood, spreading to the nervous system. The infection is usually transmitted through deep puncture wounds or cuts or scratches that are not cleaned well. Thus the warnings by what appeared at the time to be overzealous parents, nurses and/or doctors. They
wanted to prevent you from enduring all this pain. And death. In the underdeveloped world, neonatal tetanus accounts for about one-half of tetanus deaths and is related to infection of the umbilical stump in a baby born of an unimmunized mother. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that over 270,000 deaths occur annually worldwide as a result of neonatal tetanus. In contrast, only two cases of neonatal tetanus in the United States were reported to the CDC between 1989 and 1999. Mothers who have been adequately immunized against tetanus protect their newborns by passing the antibody through the placenta. Early diagnosis and treatment is crucial to recovery from tetanus. Tetanus is a life-threatening
“The Children Suffer . . .” Continued on Page 2