Nearly all cases of tetanus occur in people who have never been vaccinated or in adults who have not kept up to date on their booster shots.
Signs and symptoms of tetanus appear anytime from 3 to 21 days after tetanus bacteria enter the body through a wound. Most cases occur within 14 days.
Symptoms can include:
jaw cramping or the inability to open the mouth
muscle spasms often in the back, abdomen and extremities
sudden painful muscle spasms often triggered by sudden noises
trouble swallowing
seizures
headache
fever and sweating
changes in blood pressure or fast heart rate.
In neonatal tetanus, symptoms include muscle spasms, which are often preceded by the newborn’s inability to suck or breastfeed, and excessive crying.
Tetanus is diagnosed on the basis of clinical features and does not require laboratory confirmation. Tetanus requires treatment in a medical facility, often in a referral hospital. People who recover from tetanus do not have natural immunity and can be infected again and therefore need to be immunized.
Tetanus
Tetanus is a serious illness contracted through exposure to the spores of the bacterium, Clostridium tetani, which live in soil, saliva, dust, and manure. The bacteria can enter the body through a deep cuts, wounds or burns affecting the nervous system. The infection leads to painful muscle contractions, particularly of the jaw and neck muscle, and is commonly known as “lockjaw”.
People of all ages can get tetanus but the disease is particularly common and serious in newborn babies and their mothers when the mothers` are unprotected from tetanus by the vaccine, tetanus toxoid. Tetanus occurring during pregnancy or within 6 weeks of the end of pregnancy is called “maternal tetanus”, while tetanus occurring within the first 28 days of life is called “neonatal tetanus”.
The disease remains an important public health problem in many parts of the world, but especially in low-income countries or districts, where immunization coverage is low and unclean birth practices are common. WHO estimates that in 2017 (the latest year for which estimates are available), 30,848 newborns died from neonatal tetanus, 85% reduction from the situation in 2000.
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