The Disease Tetanus
Tetanus: acute infectious disease of the central nervous system caused by the toxins of Clostridium Tetani.
This disease, often referred to as lockjaw, is a very serious illness. It is found on almost anything, but is not a common illness. This is because the disease must be transported to the lower layers of the skin and must be sealed there to incubate and grow. Tetanus causes the muscles in the body, often the arms and facial region, to contract but not have the ability to relax. It's a state of rigamortis while the person infected is still alive. The tetanus toxin is one of the most potent poisons known, yet is found in your body right now. It is often located in feces and soil, but the intestinal enzymes destroy the toxin. The mortality rate for a person infected is about 40% and that number almost doubles if the person is very young or elderly. The muscles in the chest and abdomen eventually tense up and cause the person to either stop breathing, or stops their heart. So what does a person do to prevent such an illness form happening to them? The first thing to do is get a booster shot or vaccination from the tetanus toxin. With that in place, the chance of tetanus is almost 1%. There is still a chance that the person will become infected though. So treatment has been made possible but it is still in developmental stages. The first thing that is done is the body is treated with a sort of tetanus antitoxin in conjunction with human immune globulin. This, plus a percentage of dead Tetani, cause the body to create cells capable of eliminating the toxin found outside of the intestine. Deep puncture wounds are the main source of entry for tetanus. The toxin, known as tetanospasmin, travels to the brain through the blood. If tetanus is in the body for more than 15 days, and the body registers this, then the treatment is almost useless but may cause comfort. Often, a patient will have to have an IV of penicillin and sometimes, the tissue is removed from the body. For comfort, the doctors may also give muscle relaxants. The booster shot is given for 4 years to children from age two to age six and is known as a DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine.
Clostridium difficile, otherwise known as C. diff, is a species of spore-forming, anaerobic, gram-positive bacteria that is known to cause watery diarrhea. 1 The genus name, Clostridium refers to the spindle shape of the organism while Difficile means difficult in Latin due to the fact that this organism thrives in unfavorable conditions and is very difficult to isolate.4 The incidence of getting CDI has increased over the years due to new strains of increased toxin production of the bacteria and increased resistance to antibiotics.2 It is a gastrointestinal infection, and the most common cause of infectious diarrhea.1 C. difficile was first identified in the feces of healthy newborns back in the 1930’s and by 1935, it was considered normal flora. 2 During 1974, researchers conducted that about 21% of patients that were treated with an antibiotic called clindamyacin reported diarrhea and about 10% of them reported to have conducted pseudomembranous colitis as a side effect of this treatment. 2 It was in 1978 where C. diff had been known to cause anti-biotic associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. 2 It is known to form spores that resist many disinfectants; it also survives for several months on different surfaces.1 It is a common form of a nosocomial infection and the prevalence of becoming infected with C. diff is about 0-15% in a health care setting. 3 The spores survive well in environments such as soil, water and animals and is distributed worldwide. 4 CDI produces two toxins (Toxin A and B), which are cytotoxic and cause tissue necrosis.4
A 55 year old patient was admitted to the inpatient unit from a hospice facility at 4:00 in the afternoon on April 1st, 2015. The patient has end stage pancreatic cancer with liver and bone metastasis. The unit nurse noted foul smelling loose stools upon the patient’s arrival. After 24 hours and three loose stools, a Clostridium toxin assay test was performed and the patient has tested positive for Clostridium difficile toxin (Elsevier, 2015). Today,
This infectious disease is caused by the bacteria Clostridium tetani, which is sometimes found in soil. It produces a toxin as it multiplies, that affects the nervous system. Some symptoms of tetanus are muscular spasms, and rigidity of the body, there might also be chills, headache, fever, and difficulty swallowing. If gone unchecked this toxin causes death.
Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive spore-forming bacillus involved in foodborne illness and wound infection. It is an obligate anaerobe and the only member of the genus Clostridium that is non-motile. This microorganism is normally present in soil and decaying vegetation and is an inhabitant of animal and human intestines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, C. perfringens is one of the most common sources of foodborne illness in the United States, being the cause of an estimated 1 million cases each year. However, it is also prevalent worldwide. This bacterium has the shortest reported generation time of any organism at 6.3 minutes in thioglycollate medium, making it particularly virulent after initial inoculation.
The disease, botulism, which is caused by Clostridium botulinium, is an emerging infectious disease. Clostridium botulinium is a bacterium that produces a neurotoxin that causes botulism. The bacterium is spore-forming, and anaerobic, meaning it does not need oxygen to grow. There are three main types of illnesses that Clostridium botulinium typically cause: Food-borne botulism, infant botulism, and wound botulism. Unbeknownst to common knowledge, infant botulism is the most common form of the disease, consisting of seventy-five percent of the reported cases of the disease (Chan-Tack, & Bartlett, 2010).
Clostridium difficile infection often causes a disease known as pseudomembranous colitis. It is an inflammation of the intestine caused by Toxin A and B. Cell death and fluid accumulation stimulate the release of histamine and this causes inflammation. It is characterized by foul smelling diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. Complications that may arise include dehydration due to loss of water and electrolytes caused by excessive diarrhea, toxic megacolon, and in extreme cases death.2
Infection from C. tetani bacteria causes tetanus, a disease that affects the nervous system. The spores enter the host through open wounds.3 Many cells are dead at the wound site, which provides an ideal environment for the germination of more C. tetani spores. After entering the host, the bacteria releases a toxin, called tetanospasmin. The tetanospasmin is a peptide made out of two chains, one is a light chain while the other is heavy. The chains of this toxin produce inhibitors that bind to receptors and cause uncontrollable muscle contraction, which is a common symptom of tetanus. Tetanospasmin affects the human ne...
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Pink Book "Tetanus" N.p.: n.p., n.d. Http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/tetanus.pdf. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
T. pallidum is highly sensitive to oxygen and has a decreased ability to survive when not in human body temperature environments 1. The mode of transmission is through sexual contact or vertical transmission from the mother to the fetus. T. pallidum lacks the lipopolysaccharide which is the endotoxin normally present in gram negative bacteria1. The bacterium does produce many lipoproteins which are thought to prompt the inflammatory mediators through the recognition of toll-like receptors1. T. pallidum has a virulence factor of being highly motile due to its ability to propel itself forward by rotating on a longitudinal axis1. The spirochetes easily penetrate the skin or mucosal membranes and spread throughout the lymph nodes and then the blood circulation, affecting many parts in the body1.
In my case study I was presented with a patient 58-year old patient who upon physical examination presented signs & symptoms of headaches, irritability, generalized muscle pain and very tight contractions and uncontrollable back spasms. Further assessing this patient, it was discovered that he previously injured himself by puncturing his left arm with a nail from and old barn he was tearing. The puncture wound has produced moderate quantities of pus, but it has not been kept clean. According to the patients’ immunization records a tetanus vaccination has not been administered to him since he was a child. With this patient producing these types of signs and symptoms as well as his immunization records for tetanus vaccination and boosters are
Tetanus is a bacteria that causes very rare fatal disease that people sometimes called lockjaw, they call it lockjaw because it is a tightness in the jaw. Not many people know what Tetanus is because it is so rare. The bacteria that Tetanus comes from is very good at duplicating itself; also, Tetanus has many layers to protect themselves which makes it hard to cure when you get it. You can cure it by washing out the cut right when you get it or getting it vaccinated.
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.
The case study subject is P.L., a twenty- three year-old teacher that is being seen in a clinic for upper respiratory symptoms she has had for two weeks. The patients presents with mild fever, thick but clear mucous from her nose, malaise and swollen cervical lymph nodes. The patient reports her cough continues to increase, consistently becoming more forceful. P.L. reports she works in a school that has fifty-four students diagnosed with pertussis, five of those students are in her class.
The condition is more common around tropical locations. There are 856 million people constantly threatened by the disease. It is a discarded issue as it isn’t affecting any developed countries however that does not change the fact that more than 100 million people are disfigured due to this horrid condition. The condition brings irritation to a person and does not allow them to have the freedom of movement. It restricts and limits a person to certain movements. Another symptom of the disorder are repetitive fevers and
Tuberculosis has plagued mankind for a long time. This disease, which was previously believed to be eradicated, has once again shown up and begun attacking the lives of many humans. Tuberculosis infects a third of the population and kills a fraction of them. Many approaches have been used including different varieties of infection control, bodily defenses, and treatments to try to protect humans from tuberculosis. The best way to prevent tuberculosis infections is to contain the source of tuberculosis. The most common source of tuberculosis infection is from infected humans. By diagnosing, containing, and treating people with latent tuberculosis before they get active, contagious tuberculosis, tuberculosis can be quickly contained. Once someone has been diagnosed with TB, they should be placed under isolation.