Tetanus Vaccination Information
Symptoms and Complications
Tetanus is often called "lockjaw" because the jaw muscles tighten, and the person cannot open his mouth. The most common initial sign is spasms of the muscles of the jaw, or "lockjaw".
Tetanus symptoms include:
- Headache Jaw cramping
- Sudden, involuntary muscle tightening – often in the stomach (muscle spasms)
- Painful muscle stiffness all over the body
- Trouble swallowing
- Jerking or staring (seizures)
- Fever and sweating
- High blood pressure and fast heart rate
Tetanus complications include:
- Uncontrolled/involuntary muscular contraction of the vocal cords (laryngo-spasm)
- Pneumonia, a lung infection, that develops by breathing in foreign materials (aspiration pneumonia)
Prevention
Being fully immunized with tetanus vaccines for all ages is best way to prevent tetanus infection. New tetanus vaccine combined with other vaccination like Diphtheria,whooping cough and inactivated polio is best vaccine.
