107 patients with neonatal tetanus were studied and the value of intrathecal antitetanus serum with steroid was noted. The mortality rate in a control group (68%) was significantly higher than that ofthe test group (37%). Furthermore, a delay in antitetanus serum administrationwas found to have a strong positive linear correlation with the mortality rate. In fact, the mortality rate for neonate...

BACKGROUND Neonatal Tetanus (NT) is a preventable cause of mortality and neurological sequelae that occurs at higher incidence in resource-poor countries, presumably because of low maternal immunisation rates and unhygienic cord care practices. We aimed to determine changes in the incidence of NT, characterize and investigate the associated risk factors and mortality in a prospective cohort stu...

BACKGROUND Pakistan is one of the remaining 24 countries which have not yet achieved Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE), The country adopted high-risk approach for 56 out of 119 districts with country-wide Tetanus Toxoid (TT) provision in Routine Immunization (RI) during early 2000-2003. The TT's mass campaigns could only cover 13% of high risk districts for 2009- 2011, and mostly...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether home visits for neonatal care by community health workers can reduce infant and neonatal deaths and stillbirths in resource-limited settings. METHODS We conducted a systematic review up to 2008 of controlled trials comparing various intervention packages, one of them being home visits for neonatal care by community health workers. We performed meta-analysis to c...

World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2013 that 49,000 deaths all over the world were caused by neonatal tetanus. Only as recently as the year 2000, neonatal tetanus was a public health problem in 59 countries, but since then it has been eliminated in 36 of the countries concerned. The objective of this piece of work, therefore, was to investigate which strategies intended to increase de...

It has been shown that total curarization and intermittent positive pressure respiration (IPPR) improves the prognosis of newborn babies suffering from tetanus (Wright, Sykes, Jackson, Mann, and Adams, 1961), but facilities for its use are not always available. The physician responsible for treating a patient may have to turn to simpler means such as tracheostomy. Some consider this essential (...

Tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) is one of the most poisonous substances on Earth and a major cause of neonatal death in non-vaccinated areas (1). TeNT targets the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) with high affinity, yet the nature of the TeNT receptor complex at the NMJ remains unknown (2). Here we show that nidogens (also known as entactins (3)) are highly enriched at the basement membrane of the NMJ an...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The overwhelming majority of the world's annual 4 million neonatal deaths occur in developing countries. This review therefore briefly addresses the burden, aetiology, prevention and management of serious neonatal bacterial infections in low-income settings. RECENT FINDINGS Bacterial infection is the biggest cause of neonatal admissions to hospitals, and probably the biggest...

Accelerated disease control initiatives, such as polio eradication by the year 2000, may substantially benefit public health programs in general. In Egypt, the control of other vaccine-preventable diseases, most noticeably neonatal tetanus (NT), has been facilitated by the polio eradication initiative. Linking NT reporting with the acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system, which had be...