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Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e
| Part 8. Infectious Diseases > Section 5. Diseases Caused by Gram-Positive Bacteria > |
Chapter 140. Tetanus
Sections: Tetanus: Introduction, Further Readings.
Topics Discussed: tetanus.
Excerpt:"Tetanus is an acute disease manifested by skeletal muscle spasm and autonomic nervous system disturbance. It is caused by a powerful neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium tetani and is completely preventable by vaccination. C. tetani is found throughout the world, and tetanus commonly occurs where the vaccination coverage rate is low. In developed countries, the disease is seen occasionally in individuals who are incompletely vaccinated. In any setting, established tetanus is a severe disease with a high mortality rate.Tetanus is diagnosed on clinical grounds (sometimes with supportive laboratory confirmation of the presence of C. tetani; see "Diagnosis," below), and case definitions are often used to facilitate clinical and epidemiologic assessments. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines tetanus as "the acute onset of hypertonia or. . .painful muscular contractions (usually of the muscles of the jaw and neck) and generalized muscle spasms without other apparent medical cause." Neonatal tetanus is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "an illness occurring in a child who has the normal ability to suck and cry in the first 2 days of life but who loses this ability between..."
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