Tetanus is a frequently fatal disease caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani.
The disease is caused by the action of a potent neurotoxin produced during the growth of the bacteria in dead tissues.
The disease is characterized by intense painful muscle contractions, sometimes strong enough to break even the strongest bones in the body.
The word tetanus is derived from Greek term tetanus, meaning ‘to contract’.
The continue contraction of the muscle are liable to sudden increase in violence and painful paroxysm, which ceasing, leaving in a comparatively relaxed and easy state.
This disease is everyone worrying about. The repeated exposure of young children to cut scrapes and it provides a continual source of anxiety for parents on unvaccinated children.
Tetanus has been distinguished into two species, the idiopathic, including those cases where the disease appears to arise from some general cause, as exposure it damp or cold; and the traumatic or symptomatic, when it is a remote consequence of a local injury.
People of all ages can get tetanus, But the disease is particularly common and serous in newborn babies. This called neonatal tetanus. Most infants who get the disease die.
Neonatal tetanus is particularly common in rural areas where most deliveries are at home without adequate sterile procedures.
The organism responsible for tetanus is found in soils and the intestinal tracts of animals.
Tetanus
