Aid group warns of tetanus scare

Aid group warns of tetanus scare

Dozens of survivors scavenging through debris in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh have contracted tetanus, and the confirmed number of infections is set to spike in coming weeks, a medical aid group has warned in Banda Ace..

Tetanus has been detected in 67 people and because the sometimes deadly disease has an incubation period of up to 60 days, that number is expected to jump in the near future, Medecins Sans Frontiers said in a statement Friday.

Up to a quarter of the people who contract Tetanus die from the disease, the group said.

"Most cases are only starting to show up now," Loris De Filippi, the group's coordinator in Aceh, said in the statement. "The fear is that many more people will develop the disease in days and weeks to come."

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial disease that affects the nervous system. When tetanus spores, which live in soil and dust, get into the human body via wounds, they release toxins that cause spasms and stiffness. A scratch is enough, but a deep cut or wound will make the sufferer particularly susceptible to infection.

Towns and villages across hard-hit Aceh province have been replaced by mountains of rubble filled with nail-studded timber, broken glass and other sharp-edged debris.

"People are becoming infected when they search for corpses or useful objects in the rubble left by the tsunami," the group said.

Medecins Sans Frontiers is distributing boots and gloves and dispatching vehicles with loudspeakers as part of a campaign to prevent people from contracting tetanus, the statement said. -- AP