Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1933-06-29
LOckjaw Dangers
Are Discussed By
Health Department
Fourth Of July Accidents Often
Lead To Tetanus-Many
Cases Prove Fatal

When you see that there have been
one hundred deaths from tetarus in
Maryland in the last five years, you
are not nearly so startled as you are
when you find out that tetanus is
another lame for lockjaw and that
one hundred persons have died from
lockjaw, in Maryland, since 1928. The
records of the State Department of
Health show that 156 cases of tetanus
were reported to the Bureau of Com
municable Diseases during the five
years ending December, 1882, 76 in
the counties and 80 in Baltimore CITY.
One hundred did not recover, 43 of
the deaths occurring in the counties
and 81 in Baltimore City. All of the
deaths were due to injuries in which
germ-laden, tetanus-producing, or 9TH
er solid matter, was crushed deeply
into the flesh and sealed in the
wounds.
Injuries of this sort are so fire.
quently the result of Fourth of July
accidents in handling fireworks shoot
ing off blank cartridges, playing with
toy pistols, fire crackers, torpedoes,
or other explosives, that doctors,
health officers and the accident de-
partments of hospitals, have come to
associate this particularly agonizing
disease with the national holiday"
DR.. R. H. Riley, Director of the State
Department of Health, said in urging
that safer and saner ways of cele-
brating the holiday be used.
THE germ that causes lockjaw-I
tetanus, to give, it, its scientific name
If found" he continued, Gin the
dust that floats in the air, in dirt
from streets and roads and particu- !
larly in dirt around stables. It hap
pens to be one of the germs that
fourishes best when the air is ex-
cluded. The germs are inactive until
they are crushed into a wound with
the air shut off, and then the toxin
or poison that causes the agonizing
suffering characteristic of lockjaw.
begins to develop.
"The size of the wound has nothing
to do with the disastrous effect of the
germ. A mere puncture by dirty
nail, or by splinter, may force the |
material into the flesh. In
juries from fireworks, and blank car
tridges are so dangerous because the
lockjaw-producing material is crushed
into the flesh by the force of the ex-
plosion.
Fortunately, we have an anti
toxin that helps to prevent lockjaw
from developing. But it must be adj
ministered promptly. Sometimes even
when that is done lockjaw may de-
velop. A person who has an injury of
this sort-no matter how it occurs
should get to a doctor, or a hospital.
as quickly as possible, to have the
wound treated and to be given the
tetanus anti-toxin. Don't wait until
the symptoms of lockjaw develop. By
that time, it may be too late. The
treatment of the injury includes the
opening and thorough, surgical
cleansing of the wound. It is of the
utmost Importance that a wound of
this character be kept open.
"Tetanus anti-toxin for the pre-
vention of Observation-Disclosures from
Fourth of July accidents, or from in
Jurles caused in other ways-is SUD-
piled free of charge, to physicians in
the counties, by the State Department
OF Health, through the county health
officers. The larger quantities neces-
sary for the treatment of advanced