WHY SHOULD PREVENTIVE VACCINATIONS BE DONE?
Over the past 40 years, 8 cases of tetanus have been registered in the Yavoriv district. A serious infectious disease is registered in the form of isolated cases only in those persons who do not have proper preventive vaccinations/
In Ukraine, tetanus ranks fourth in terms of mortality after AIDS, rabies and myeloidosis.
The causative agent of tetanus is the tetanus bacillus, which is found in the soil, and its spores are in the digestive tract of sheep, horses and other domestic animals. The bacillus enters the external environment with human and animal feces, and is stored for years in the form of spores.
The causative agent of tetanus is very resistant: it can withstand heating up to 80 degrees for one hour, in a dried form without access to light it can be stored for up to 10 years, and its spores do not die even when boiled for 30-60 minutes.
Entry gates for tetanus bacillus are accidental wounds, mechanical and thermal superficial skin damage, as well as frostbite and burns. If the bacillus penetrates through the umbilical wound, tetanus may develop in newborns.
How does the disease progress?
Once in a wound, the tetanus bacillus produces a strong exotoxin that causes convulsive muscle contractions and hemolysis of red blood cells.
The disease is manifested by weakness, irritability, headache, muscle twitching in the wound area. There are pulling pains, muscle stiffness around the wound. It is difficult for the patient to open his mouth due to spasms and pain in the masticatory muscles. The face acquires a characteristic “sardonic smile”. There may be abdominal pain and tension in the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall. Convulsions cover all the muscles of the body, the patient bends in an arc, leaning on the heels and the back of the head.
The causes of death from tetanus are asphyxia (suffocation) due to convulsions, paralysis of the heart and breathing.
How to prevent the disease?
Urgent prevention is necessary; surgical treatment of a wound (injury) and vaccination – administration of tetanus toxoid, which is prescribed for:
injuries with a violation of the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes;
frostbite and burns (thermal, chemical, radiation), second, third and fourth degree;
penetrating damage to the gastrointestinal tract;
out of hospital abortions;
childbirth outside medical institutions;
gangrene or tissue necrosis of any stage, abscesses;
animal bites.
Today, vaccination is the only means of combating tetanus and the most reliable method of prevention of this terrible disease.
Vira Levytska, epidemiologist, Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Prevention of Infectious Diseases of the Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine