This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c) It originates from the Evil House of Cheat More essays can always be found at: --- http://www.CheatHouse.com --- ... and contact can always be made to: Webmaster@cheathouse.com -------------------------------------------------------------- Essay Name : 1331.txt Uploader : Mike Seto Email Address : Language : English Subject : Health Title : Tetanus : The Physiology of a killer Grade : 10 School System : Public Country : Canada Author Comments : More Facts Than Anything.. Teacher Comments : Long and detailed, but loses readers interest with too many factoids Date : November 20 Site found at : Best Friend Told Me -------------------------------------------------------------- What this report is about is the life, physical, and mental characteristics about Tetanus which is also known as clostridium botulinum or C. Tetani. The purpose for me doing this report is to solely teach everyone about the good things and bad things ( Mostly bad things ) about the tetanus pathogen and to benefit my own education. Anther reason I'm doing this report is that I think it will be enjoying as I did it in my free time. Tetanus is an interesting bacteria with many things about you would not believe. One type of it is smaller than a fifth the diameter of a single strand of hair yet it could kill any man only by producing 0.00025 grams of toxin. It would take 20 times that of the deadliest cobra venom to do that and 150 times that of strychnine in order to kill a man. There are also many other facts like this and opinions inside the body of this report that you should find out. If you wish to find them out, turn the page!! Although the Clostridium Tetani is one of the world's most dangerous pathogens (Bacteria). Clostridium Tetani are not parasites like AIDS or Polio, in fact is a saprophyte. That means they are mainly decomposers and cannot reproduce, grow or live to a degree that they could if they were in waste or dead matter. These saprophytes are mainly found in places such as soil plus human and animal feces, but their spores can be found everywhere such as on steel, sewage, manure, on your hands, on your feet, on your nose, and every other possible place you can think of. C. Tetani has the most potent exotoxin of all the known micro-organisms in the world. It's toxin, as will be mentioned below, is very deadly in small doses and mainly focuses it's destructive capabilities on destroying nerves that command motor skills, the heart, the lungs, and much more. This type of Tetanus irritates the nerves so much it can fray them or even make signals of it's own like giving the guy spasms or increased or decreased heart rate. Sometimes even throwing the poor guy into involuntary dances or exhaustion. The use of antitoxin in the treatment and prevention of Tetanus is an example of passive immunity from the pathogen and was a first cast of this. This immunity was discovered by von Behring and Fränkel in 1890. Tetanus organisms gain entrance to the body through dirt or dirty objects when they forced into non-dead tissue by gun-shot, shrapnel, deep, extensive, and dirt-contaminated wounds, or many other accidental ways. Under most circumstances some tissue is killed in the local area in which the wound was received. As Tetanus pathogens are anaerobic and are decomposers, they find that reproducing in the dead tissue in the airless wound favourable to do. And while reproducing, the Tetanus pathogen finds it convenient to secrete and extract it's insidious toxin, which kills of more cells for it to reproduce on. Tetanus toxin is one of the most potent poisons known. It requires only about 0.00025 grams of Tetanus toxin to seriously kill a man. It would take 20 times that of the deadliest cobra venom on the Earth's surface to do that and 150 times that of strychnine in order to do that again. Doctors diagnose Tetanus by looking for the following syndromes: - Jaw stiffness followed by spasms of jaw muscles (Known as Trismus) - Stiffness of the neck and other muscles, dysphagia, irritability, and hyperfleia. - Painful convulsions extracted from minimal response to stimuli such as reflex action. - History of a wound and possible contamination. Once a doctor discovers a patient has Tetanus, he will give 5000 units (International-Standard) of Tetanus immune globulin. If that is not available, then he will give Tetanus antitoxin. 100000 units of it if the patient is able to withstand the horse serum they use, else the amount will be questionable. The symptoms of Tetanus are eliminated with chlorpromazine or diazepam which is combined with a sedative. In desperate cases, the doctor will use curarization. This can be all be prevented by giving immunizations of Tetanus toxoid (Tetanus toxoid is a sterile solution of fluid Tetanus toxoid that is rendered disabled). Given 2 injections of 0.5 ml every 4-8 weeks and another in 12 months, the Tetanus pathogen will have no chance of survival. Booster shots should also be given every 5 years. Using Tetanus immune hemoglobin is perferrable to using Tetanus toxoid. The death rate occurring from Tetanus occurs more likely in young children and elderly people. With shorter incubation periods of the Tetanus pathogen and non-delay of treatment, Tetanus can be overcome more quickly than long incubation periods with big delays of treatment. In other words, once you see the symptoms of Tetanus, run to your doctor for diagnosis. Also, if trismus develops early, you are a dead man. Contaminated lesions in the head in face are more deadlier than any other part of your body being contaminated. Tetanus belongs to a group of pathogens called clostridium ('C.' for short). Clostridium is a group that does not breathe air and will died of prolonged exposure to oxygen. --------------------------------------------------------------