Word: tetanus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...addition to the required smallpox vaccination, the U.S. Public Health Services recommends immunization against typhoid, tetanus, and polioomyelitis for all international travelers...
Other researchers believe high-pressure oxygen may be useful in destroying lingering tetanus bacilli, and doctors at Maumee Vallery Hospital, Toledo, report that in some cases it is effective against oxygen-breathing microbes, including Staphylococcus aureus-"hospital staph." There is even evidence that high-pressure oxygen may help to dispel massive blood clots in the lungs, help to reverse the effects of severe heart attacks, and enhance the effectiveness of certain drugs in the treatment of certain skin cancers (melanomas...
Difficult Choice. Tetanus bacteria lurk in sewage and soil, in dust and rust. They can enter the human body through any penetrating wound, through the unhealed navel of the newborn, and through drug addicts' contaminated dope. There is so little that even the best of medical centers can do once the disease has developed, Dr. Christensen insists prevention is the only reliable cure. Tetanus toxoid is cheap and safe; it rarely causes unwanted reactions. It should first be given in a course of three shots paced a month apart, he says. There should be a booster a year later...
...Christensen, all he needs is an immediate booster. But if he has never had toxoid, or is unconscious and cannot answer questions, the doctor has a difficult choice. He can give toxoid, which takes a while to build up immunity and may work too slowly. Or he can give tetanus antitoxin, which confers brief but prompt immunity. Trouble is, the antitoxin, almost always prepared from the blood of horses, carries a heavy risk of serum sickness, which can be as deadly as tetanus...
Expensive Escape. Every year, said Dr. Christensen, about 500,000 Americans get a shot of horse-serum antitoxin. Some 25,000 get a bad reaction, and about 20 die. Tetanus experts see an escape from such dangers-at a price. Two West Coast companies, Cutter Laboratories and Hyland Laboratories, are extracting tetanus antibody from human volunteers in the form of immune globulin. But the price of one shot of human serum extract ranges from $7.50 to $11.50, whereas the horse serum costs less than $2.00. And even where price is no problem, an overriding handicap remains: human globulin is likely...