Show Tetanus Deaths Says AMA Health Official Despite tin- outpouring of new man's ancient not vet succumbed to a Even li from or as it is commonly is entirely says Raymond L. Director of Environmental Medicine for the American Medical a t i. completely White only reason it persists is that people fail to pet or fail to maintain their Out of sheer three-fourths of the people don't have the protection they If it weren't for medicine's continual concern over the possibility of tetanus-if practically every time a physician saw a wound he didn't take precautions against tetanus disease would rank much higher among human Tetanus is caused by a deadly poison emitted by certain bacteria which contaminate certain of wound especially puncture or wounds imbedded The bacteria itself cannot long enough in the open air to infect But its seeds or spores spores are usually produced by bacteria growing within the air-free intestinal tracts of including and reach the ground in animal Within the bacteria cause no harm to their other than to serve as factories for the production of Once on the ground the which are unaffected by and arc borne great dis- Puncture wounds are a common cause of on the can survive for as long as 11 Besides cultivated they arc commonly found in household dust and the grime of city Some have even been detected in hospital operating rooms-tracked in on street The spores in some sections of the country are nearly as common as and await only the right kind of wound to their chain of Because of its peculiar tetanus has never been a mass killer like some Infectious It a vicious killing 60 per cent of those it Development of immunity against says a of inoculations three injections four weeks followed within six to twelve months by a booster To maintain this additional booster shots arc necessary every four he begin early in life one to two months after birth-for the scrapes and falls of childhood offer tetanus many adults need protection With the new emphasis on outdoor with accidents on the increase and with the spore of tetanus in the dust and dirt all about we can only look forward to an increase in this deadly disease unless we make better use of our good get immunized and keep |