Tetanus

Tetanus or lock jaw is a condition which develops in persons due to the bacteria which enters into the body of a person via the wound that had been incurred due to the bite of an animal or while gardening.

The person may develop tetanus if the person does not cover his wound that leads to its infection from manure or soil. If the person has incurred a deep wound, then also he is at the risk of developing tetanus.

The condition develops in persons only after three weeks of the toxins getting released in his body. Tetanus can prove to be very fatal if the nerves are affected.

Persons can be administered the tetanus vaccine for providing immunisation. The vaccine is administered in five doses which helps the body to create antibodies. These antibodies will act against the toxins that cause tetanus.

Symptoms

The initial symptom of tetanus is the presence of spasm near the wound that has developed the infection. Once the toxins enter the stream of blood, then slowly the person starts developing other symptoms, especially on the face. The commonly found symptom at this stage is the spasm which a person experiences on his chewing muscles. This poses difficulty in opening the mouth. This is why the condition is commonly called the lockjaw.

There can be spasm on the muscles of the throat following which the facial muscles also develop spasm. Slowly the other muscles also develop spasm. These muscles are the muscles of the chest that leads to breathing difficulty, of the neck causing the head to tilt, of the walls of the stomach as well as the muscles of the legs as well as arms.

Then the muscles of the back develop spasm, which leads to the arching of the spine backwards.

The other symptoms are sensitivity for touching, high fever, very fast heartbeat, sore throat, breathing difficulty, headaches, bleeding bowels as well as diarrhoea.

Tetanus may lead to death if the blood develops poisoning, the person develops asphyxia, the person develops cardiac arrest, the person develops renal failures as well as if the person develops exhaustion.

Treatment

The wound must be washed with clean water to remove the dirt that has stuck to the wound. This must be done carefully so as to avoid any further damage. If a person feels that the wound is infected then he must visit the doctor immediately.

The booster dose of the tetanus vaccine must be administered if the course of the immunisation had not been taken completely. The booster dose along with the tetanus antiserum injection must also be taken if the wound is very deep as well as dirty as there are high chances of the person developing the infection under such cases.

The contaminated and damaged muscles are removed from the wound by a process called debridement so as to restrict the amount of the tetanospasmin toxin that has been produced.

In cases if the toxins are established completely, the tetanus antitoxins are administered to act against the toxins. Antibiotics like metronidazole are administered in large doses in cases of suspected infections.

A person who develops tetanus takes 40 days for recovery.