Neonatal Tetanus

Eliminating Neonatal Tetanus

Maternal and neonatal tetanus.

Maternal and neonatal tetanus are important causes of maternal and neonatal mortality, claiming about 180 000 lives worldwide every year, almost exclusively in developing countries. Although easily prevented by maternal immunisation with tetanus toxoid vaccine, and aseptic obstetric and postnatal umbilical-cord care practices, maternal and neonatal tetanus persist as public-health problems in 4...

Neonatal tetanus in Casablanca

Neonatal tetanus (NT) remains common in developing countries. Its poor prognosis is characterized by a high mortality rate. Patients and methods – Our retrospective review concerned 50 cases of NT admitted to the intensive care and neonatology units in the Casablanca Children’s Hospital between 1990 and 1999. The diagnosis was made on clinical signs and gravity was evaluated with the Dakar scor...

Tetanus toxoid immunization to reduce mortality from neonatal tetanus

BACKGROUND Neonatal tetanus remains an important and preventable cause of neonatal mortality globally. Large reductions in neonatal tetanus deaths have been reported following major increases in the coverage of tetanus toxoid immunization, yet the level of evidence for the mortality effect of tetanus toxoid immunization is surprisingly weak with only two trials considered in a Cochrane review. ...

Neonatal tetanus--long-term residual handicaps.

Thirty-eight survivors of neonatal tetanus were assessed, 5 to 12 years after recovery, for neurological sequelae, physical growth, and maturation. Apart from appreciable handicaps (cerebral palsy, mental deficit, behavioural disturbances) in 4 cases, no harmful effect on physical growth or development was found. The fact that affected patients had frequent and prolonged bouts of spasms and apn...