Health news from around the world.

Antibiotics to kill the tetanus germ are used and also an anti-toxin serum to neutralise the toxin produced by the germ.

How can we prevent tetanus? Active immunisation is the answer.

A vaccine, tetanus-toxoid, is given by injection into the muscles. Three injections are necessary.

The first two are given six weeks apart and the second and third injections some six months or so apart.

Primary immunisation is carried out in infants usually associated with prevention against diphtheria and whooping cough by the use of triple antigen.

After the age of two reactions to the whooping cough vaccine are common and so this is dropped.

CDT, or combined diphtheria-tetanus vaccine is used instead. Later tetanus-toxoid vaccine is given alone.

Recently an adult combined diphtheria-tetanus vaccine (ADT) has been recommended so as to boost the adult’s immunisation against diphtheria.

If immediate passive protection is required in those who are unimmunised, or whose immunisation may have waned with time, then tetanus immunoglobulin which is prepared from human serum is used.

This rarely causes any reaction.

Triple antigen is given to children starting at eight to 12 weeks of age. There are three injections usually a month or so apart.

At 18 months a booster of triple antigen is given. At five years a CDT and at 12 years a tetanus-toxoid vaccine alone completes the course of immunisation in the child.

If a tetanus-prone wound should happen and more than two years have passed since the last injection then a booster of tetanus-toxoid should be given.

If over 10 years has passed and a tetanus-prone wound occurs then not only the tetanus-toxoid but the tetanus immunoglobulin should also be given.

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A little more than 100 years ago, medical writers commented on diverticula of the bowel as a medical curiosity.

Now, diverticular disease is the commonest bowel disorder, with more than a third of those over the age of 40 suffering from it.

A diverticulum is a pocket or blowout of the lower bowel. It is really a hernia of the inner coat of the bowel wall, the mucosa, through the muscular coat at the point where the blood vessels penetrate and leave a weak spot.

The increase of this disease is thought to be due to the change in the diet of Western nations. As affluence increases, so diet changes, with indigestible fibre or bulk being removed and foods becoming highly refined.

We once thought this bulk was unnecessary. Now we realise that our bowel needs it to function properly.

In those countries which have this refined diet and in those developing countries changing their diet, several unrelated diseases of the bowel have become more common. These are appendicitis, haemorrhoids or piles, diverticulitis and cancer of the bowel.

When the diet is high in fibre or indigestible residue, the transit time for passage of food through the whole gut is about 30 hours.

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