Tetanus Research Paper

Tetanus is an often fatal disease caused by bacteria known all over the world. Stepping on a rusty nail is a very common example of how someone can get tetanus. However, there are many more factors to the disease.

Tetanus can enter the body through many different ways from an object like a nail to a needle puncturing the skin. Tetanus can also enter the body through crush injuries, burns, or injuries with dead tissue or wounds contaminated with dirt, manure or spit. Since tetanus can only enter the body through open wounds, therefore it cannot spread from person to person. Tetanus can even be contracted through frostbite or rare wounds like insect bites, surgical procedures, and dental infections. There are no lab tests that can affirm tetanus, therefore the only way for a doctor to diagnose tetanus is by looking for certain symptoms or signs. Once one has gotten tetanus, the most mentioned symptom is the jaw locking, but many more symptoms occur. Some symptoms include: muscle spasms, trouble swallowing, complete muscle stiffness over the entire body, and seizures.

The spores of C. tetani are everywhere and can be located in soil, dust, and animal and intestines. C. tetani is a gram-positive anaerobic bacillus that reproduces by binary fission and produces spores. This bacterium is poisoned by oxygen and is heat sensitive, but its spores are heat resistant. C. tetani generate the following four forms of tetanus:

Generalized (the most prevalent) is tetanus all over the body.

Localized is tetanus in only one area of the body. For example, it could just be in someone’s right