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Old October 20th 06, 11:37 AM posted to misc.kids.health,misc.health.alternative
Sheri Nakken RN, MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
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Default Tetanus reality and dangers of the tetanus vaccine

Girl aged 10 catches tetanus despite vaccination

August 14 2000 The Times

http://www.times-archive.co.uk/news/...snws01021.html

BY SAM TOWLSON

A TEN-YEAR-OLD girl is the first child in Britain to contract
life-threatening tetanus for more than a decade.

Tyla Green of Clifton, Nottingham, had been immunised but doctors
believe that she got tetanus when she cut her foot five weeks ago.

After four weeks in the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, she has
returned home and is expected to make a full recovery in six months.
Her mother Halima, 34, who has three other daughters aged from 9 to 13,
said yesterday: "We are overjoyed to have Tyla home. We have gone to
hell and back, but even though she still can't speak she can laugh and
that means the world to us."

Mrs Green said that Tyla had been sent home from school ill and two
days later was found disorientated at home. "When I picked her up she
went rigid and started having a sort of a fit."

Her husband Shane, 39, called an ambulance and Tyla was taken to
hospital. Mrs Green said that doctors suspected that Tyla had
meningitis, then another brain virus, until she developed a locked jaw,
a classic sign of tetanus. "A doctor asked if she had cut herself. At
that time, I didn't think she had, but I learnt later that she had
trodden on something which really hurt her foot about a week before she
became ill.

"Because it wasn't pouring blood or needed stitches I dismissed it.
Tyla was always running around with nothing on her feet. I would advise
all parents to make sure their children have something on their feet
whenever they are outside."

Tetanus is caused by bacteria that attack the central nervous system.
It is extremely rare. There were only three cases, all in adults, in
England and Wales last year.

Tyla is the first child under 15 to contract the disease since 1989 and
hers is thought to be the first child case in Nottingham for more than
20 years.

Her consultant paediatrician, Martin Hewitt, said: "You can easily die
from tetanus but this young lady has made a remarkable recovery. She
was desperately ill but I expect her to make a full recovery."

He said it was rare for someone who had been immunised to get the
disease but it was possible. "It depends on whether the level of
antibodies you have are sufficient to fight the infection," he said.

Tyla would probably need speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational
therapy in the coming months before making a complete recovery, Mr
Hewitt said.

Dr Richard Sack, consultant for communicable diseases at Nottingham
Health Authority, said that the chance of anyone developing tetanus
from a wound after being vaccinated was extremely low.