Ilorin – Dr Akanbi Adegboye of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), on Friday, said neonatal tetanus still remained a public health concern in the country.
Adegboye told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had called for the elimination of neo-natal tetanus 20 years ago but the decrease in incidence and awesome case fatality rate had just been modest.
He said that during a three years chart review in UITH, the result showed that 95 patients were admitted with tetanus out of 3,880 paediatric admissions.
He added that “the major portal entry of clostridium tetanus is infected umbilical stump in the neonate and lower limb wound in older children.”
He explained that most patients were from low socio-economic class and that the families had no formal education or had only primary education.
Adegboye warned that post neonatal tetanus also occurred among school-age children, saying that this may be due to the adventurous nature of the children which exposed them to injuries.
He added that these injuries, if not properly taken care of, could develop into tetanus in non-immunised or partially immunised patients.
He said tetanus was entirely preventable through immunisation, adding that every case of tetanus was an embarrassment to health service providers in Nigeria.
The expert in child health pointed out that the priority must be in prevention through universal vaccination.
According to him, the last few years have witnessed propaganda on vaccine preventable diseases, including tetanus, but more still needs to be done.
Adegboye said that the present high incidence of tetanus was a reflection of the healthcare delivery system in the country,
stressing that immunisation remained the best and cheapest method of preventing death from tetanus.
“In developed countries, tetanus is now little more than a medical curiosity and neo-natal tetanus has been almost totally eradicated by maternal immunisation,’’ he said.
He described tetanus as a third-world disease needing first-world advances in medicine for its treatment.
“It is imperative that there are cost effective and readily available options in developing countries where tetanus is prevalent,” he said. (NAN)
FATY/COO/HA
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(Edited by Cecilia Odey/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu)