COMMUNICABLE DISEASES TEXTBOOK INDOCTRONATION 1948 STYLE Chapter xxx TETANUS What they don’t want you to know Etiology and Epidemiology Page 240. Thus the most favorable sites for its growth are in the soil, either in the superficial or deeper layers, or in puncture wounds, especially where there is much putrefying material. Page 241. The normal habit of the tetanus bacillus is in the intestinal tract of herbivorous animals, especially the horse and cow. The excreta of these animals, therefore, contain the causative organism, and thus a wound contaminated with soil from a region where domestic animals are present in large numbers is much more liable to become infected with the tetanus bacillus.” “Although the distribution of the bacillus appears to be fairly wide, cases of the disease are relatively infrequent, probably because the spores are overwhelmed by the protective mechanisms of the body such as phagocytosis.” So he says the dis-ease is rare and then assumes it’s because the body has built in protection against the spores. In other words the spore was not the cause a weak system was the cause. Prophylaxis: The practice of routinely administering tetanus antitoxin for all scratches and lacerations should not be encouraged as there is always risk of severe reactions and the sensitization of the patient to horse serum. Serum sickness occurs in approximately 40 per cent of the cases. Furthermore, the incidence of the disease among the lay population is very low, as evidenced by the fact that approximately only one per cent of all puncture wounds which are those most liable to infection.” I have an old book that says lockjaw is caused by the smallpox vaccination. I and my childhood friends were always cutting and scraping ourselves and we never had a tetanus shot. I hope this clears things up for you younger people. It would be one less thing to worry about
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 02:08:30 +0000