Many people continue to die from tetanus infection or have their limbs amputated despite the fact that the disease is preventable.
A general medical practitioner with Faith Mediplex Hospital, Dr. Sunny Omomoh, said tetanus was a serious bacterial disease that affected the nervous and muscular system.
Dr. Omomoh said it was caused by a bacteria called Clostridium tetani, commonly found in the soil, and that people contracted it after sustaining injury and leaving it open without thorough treatment.
“When people sustain injury without thorough dressing, the injury is contaminated with soil and dust particles that contain the organism called Clostridium tetani. After contracting it for a while, the organism releases some toxins that get fixed into the central nervous system thereby making the person to convulse and have muscular spasms,” he explained.
The physician described tetanus as a condition in which the muscle became stiff and the person closed his teeth and jerked because of the muscular spasm.
He added that if the person was not well attended to, it could lead to respiratory arrest “because the person will stop breathing and the muscle of the chest and abdomen will contract.”
Tetanus does not only affect adults; it could affect newborn babies as well due to poor management of the umbilical cord, he said.
“When babies are born, especially in the villages, there are ways they guide the cord with all sorts of medication, like tying leaves to it. Because of this, it could contract the tetanus organism leading to muscular spasm, asphyxia and inability of the baby to breath; which may eventually lead to death,” he said.
He said the umbilical cord of newborns should be properly taken care off and kept clean all the time; that is cleaning every two hours with methylated spirit.
Some of the symptoms associated with tetanus are muscular spasm and asphyxiation.
Tetanus is often called “lockjaw” because one of the most common signs of this infection is tightening of the jaw muscles. Tetanus infection can lead to serious health problems, including being unable to open the mouth and having trouble swallowing and breathing.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some of the symptoms of tetanus are:
- Jaw cramping
- Sudden, involuntary muscle tightening (muscle spasms) – often in the stomach
- Painful muscle stiffness all over the body
- Trouble swallowing
- Jerking or staring (seizures)
- Headache
- Fever and sweating
- Changes in blood pressure and fast heart rate
Serious health problems or complications can happen because of tetanus.
According to CDC, they include:
- Uncontrolled/involuntary tightening of the vocal cords (laryngospasm)
- Broken bones (fractures)
- Infections gotten by a patient during hospital visit (hospital-acquired infections)
- Blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a blood clot that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (pulmonary embolism)
- Pneumonia, a lung infection that develops by breathing in foreign materials (aspiration pneumonia)
- Breathing difficulty, possibly leading to death (1 to 2 in 10 cases are fatal)
On the risk factor, taking the Tetanus Toxoid (TT) can help prevent the disease. Hygiene is also key in reducing risk factors, Dr. Omomoh said.
He said thorough dressing of wounds was important for adults who sustained injury and that, “The wound should be covered with plaster or bandage to avoid dust and soil particles from entering.”
To also keep the disease at bay, Dr. Omomoh said pregnant women must take TT injection to protect themselves and their babies.
He advised adults to take the TT injection every 10 years and go to the hospital whenever they sustain injury, get it dressed and avoid exposure to dust or the soil.
The treatment for tetanus is basically supportive to take care of the symptoms, said the physician.
“Once the toxin is fixed to the nervous system, there is not much doctors can do. In the supportive treatment, muscle relaxers are used to combat the muscular spasm that come regularly. Drugs like Phenobarbital and Diazepam are also used.
“We combat the muscular spasm to prevent it from being torn because if it continues in the patient for a long time, especially when people struggle with the patients to hold them, it will lead to their muscles being torn. We also maintain their airing to ensure that breathing continues.”
He said children on the other hand were placed on oxygen and that they got better after the asphyxiation (the state of being deprived of oxygen, which can result in unconsciousness or death) became less.
