Tetanus case brings warning

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 12

Tetanus case brings warning

PA Hamilton A middle-aged woman is seriously ill in Waikato Hospital with tetanus. Hamilton’s Medical Officer of Health. Dr J. H. Penmket. has warned everybody to check their tetanus immunity. The warning particularly applied to people aged 40 and over.

People aged 65 and over were most at risk. Dr Penniket said.

The woman in Waikato Hospital’s intensive therapy unit was admitted with tetanus after stepping on a rusty nail. Dr Penniket said young children were routinely given injections immunising against tetanus since the 19505. People past childhood at that time may have missed immunisation unless they had had anti-tetanus injections as a precaution after injury.

Anyone who had not received an anti-tetanus injection in the last 20 years should think about getting a booster, he said. Onlv four cases of the disease were reported last vear; two in 1950 and two in 1979. But in 1978 there were

10 Between 1975 and 19/8. five people died from tetanus. These were the most recent vears for which mortalitv figures were available. The tetanus bacillus produces a poison which sends the muscles into painful spasms. A patient may die from inability to control breathing, from heart failure, or from sheer exhaustion. Treatment is to paralyse the muscles with drugs and maintain the patient on mechanical respiration until the disease runs its course.