“TETANUS TOXOID”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19894, 23 March 1939, Page 3

“TETANUS TOXOID”

HOPE OF IMMUNITY SERUM FOR THE ARMY It is announced that all ranks of the regular troops of the British Army are undergoing inoculation with a new serum which is believed to give lifelong inununity from infection by tetanus, or lockjaw, germ. The new serum is known as “tetanus toxoid.” The process of inoculation has been proceeding for several months. It is hoped to complete it, so far as the Army is concerned, by the end of the year. The light against tetanus has been conducted in the laboratories of the Army and civilian pathologists in this and other countries for several years. Their aim has been to evolve a more effective method of prevention than was given by the anti-tetanus serum universally used during the Great War, when the infection caused many painful deaths. A minimum of inconvenience is said to be caused by the minor operation. Tis is proved by the fact that the work of inoculation has been allowed to proceed during the height of the training season. The procedure is much the same as that so successfully applied in the prevention of diphtheria. There aie two injections, with an interval of several weeks between each, and a short time after the injections the poison of the microbe responsible for the disease is effectively neutralise# for a considerable period ond the pio. cess is believed to offer permanent protection.