Vaccine Shortage Forces VA To Prioritize Patients At Risk.(Brief Article)

2001 APR 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

Following a trend that is affecting U.S. hospitals, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun to prioritize who gets tetanus shots, reserving them for patients most at risk for tetanus because of a shortage of the crucial vaccine.

Stocks of tetanus vaccine were never large, but early this year one of only two pharmaceutical companies providing the vaccine announced that it would cease production. The remaining firm is trying to keep up, but each batch takes 11 months to make, so relief is not expected this year.

"Tetanus is an acute, often fatal disease that occurs worldwide," said Dr. Mary Burdick, assistant director of VA's National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NCHP). "Although the incidence has declined in the U.S. in recent years, 124 cases of tetanus were reported from 1995 through 1997. More than one-third of patients were age 60 and older."

Tetanus affects the nervous system producing both stiffness or muscle rigidity and convulsive muscle spasm. The most frequent symptom is a stiff jaw caused by spasm of the muscle that closes the mouth - accounting for the disease's familiar name, "lockjaw."

The connection between a wound caused by a rusty nail and the necessity for a tetanus shot is fixed firmly in the public's mind. Yet, tetanus can be contracted in other ways - any puncture wound, animal scratches and bites, wounds contaminated by either human or animal feces and saliva, burns, and even frostbite. Consequently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and ...