Firecracker victims urged to seek medical treatment

People involved in firecracker accidents during the New Year’s Eve revelry should get anti-tetanus shots now before tetanus sets in, a health expert said yesterday.

Dr. Arturo Cabanban, who heads the government-run San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) in Sta. Cruz, Manila, said it usually takes one to three weeks for symptoms of tetanus to appear in a person who was injured and did not seek treatment.

"So during the full month of January, we expect to see firecracker-related tetanus to come to our hospital. This may not happen if they will only get an anti-tetanus shot," he said.

In young children, the tetanus vaccine is given as part of a series that includes the diphtheria and whooping cough vaccines.

Someone who sustains a wound and who has not had a tetanus booster during the past five years need to get an anti-tetanus shot as soon as possible after the injury.

During the revelry that ushered in 2004, the SLH treated 10 cases of tetanus, a serious but preventable infection that affects the body’s muscles and nerves. The toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, whose spores can live for years in soil and animal feces, causes the symptoms of tetanus.

Cabanban warned that in the early stage of tetanus, an infected person experiences stiffening or locking of the jaws. This progresses into generalized muscle spasms that cause death by suffocation. — Sheila Crisostomo