TETANUS IMMUNISATION IS IMPORTANT

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 69, 2 September 1965, Page 8

TETANUS IMMUNISATION IS IMPORTANT

Restlessncss, headaches, irritability, fever, loss of appetite and exhausting muscle convulsions provide the early symptoms of tetanus. And in the last 10 years there have been reported 348 cases, of which 140 were fatal!

A deadly disease that is hard to cure, tetanus is nevertheless easy to prevent . . . It can be prevented by immunisation with teitanus toxoid, two primary injections being required at four to six week intervals, followed by a reinforcing dose 12 months later. And a high level of immiinisation can be maintained by a booster dose every 10 years. To guard the whole family against tetanus, three points should be remembered. % Se© your doctor now if you have not been immunised 0 Be sure to have the full immunisation course, and 0 Don't forget the boostor dose. Within four days to three weeks of a wound becoming infected with tetanus the symptoms appear. Soon the neck muscles become stiff, and jaw muscles suffer painful spasms; the victim sweats profusely, and later the jaws lock painfully — hence the common name, "lockjaw". And the sooner these symptoms occur, the more dangerous the condition is likely to be. The tetanus germ brings deadly disease to people of all ages, from the newbom to those of advanced years. Local health authorities and responsible organisations are emphatic that immunisation, active or passive, provides the only answer and positive step to personal safety.

It is true that some groups, eispecially agricultural workers, people who live on farms, or those engaged in work where injuries are more likely to occur, constitute a higher risk, but the germ can attack woimds when and wheire least expected. Although preferring a wound where the germ is carried deep into the skin tissues — gunshot wounds, or rusty nail penetration — even a trivial finger prick from a thorn or a slight scratch or graze may provide entry and a breeding place for tetanus. The germs live predominantly in the intestirieis of grass-eating animals, particularly horses, and find their way to the earth in droppings of waste matter. They may then form spores which, virtually indestructible, are spread by the wind. Whilst encysted they remain dormant, but germinate in a suitable environment.