Essay On Tetanus

Introduction

What is tetanus?

Tetanus is a disease caused by a bacterial infection, tetanus is caused when the body has come in contact with a bacterium called Clostridium tetani. Tetanus affects the nervous system and causes muscles throughout the body to tighten. The bacterium makes a sort of poison for your body which is called tetanospasmin. This poison blocks the nerve signals from your spinal cord to your muscles. This can lead to severe muscle spasms. If a person caught tetanus it could lead severe pain or even worse, death, but fortunately, there is a vaccine for tetanus/lockjaw. Tetanus is also commonly known as "lockjaw" the name is quite self-explanatory, but the name was given because muscle spasms in your jaw make it hard to open or close your mouth. Tetanus also causes seizures and makes it hard for you to breathe, or swallow.

how does it spread??

The incubation period is usually 3–21 days, but

The bacteria are most often found in soil, dust and manure and especially things like rusty metal, the bacteria can enter the body by openings in the body like cuts or small scrapes, although this is very rare, people can get tetanus in their body from bug bites, dental infections etc. There is a higher risk of infection for women if an infectious or contaminated tool is used during childbirth or abortion. There are a number of things that could cause a newborn baby to be infected, one example would be if the knife, razor or other tools that are used to cut the newborn baby’s umbilical cord is dirty this, this could give the baby the infection because as you know, tetanus is most commonly spread from people being cut with rusty or dirty metals. Another example would be if the hands of the person delivering the baby are not clean, this is why doctors, nurses, hospitals and their tools are always very clean, what we call