tetanus
tetanus
Definition
teta·nus (tet′'n əs, tet′nəs)
noun
- an acute infectious disease, often fatal, caused by the specific toxin of a bacillus (Clostridium tetani) which usually enters the body through wounds: it is characterized by spasmodic contractions and rigidity of some or all of the voluntary muscles, esp. of the jaw, face, and neck; lockjaw
- Physiol. the state of continuous contraction of a muscle, esp. when caused experimentally by a series of rapidly repeated stimuli
Etymology: L < Gr tetanos, spasm (of muscles), lit., stretched < base of teinein: see thin
tetanus
Usage Examples
Converse of object
- cause: Bacteria getting into the body through a wound, or through injecting drugs cause tetanus.
- develop: For the developing world tetanus is a major challenge with a high mortality among all age groups.
- include: They may also be complicated by a range of bacterial infections including tetanus.
- get: I might bleed too much, stain my bedclothes, get tetanus, have a poorly healing open wound or any number of nasties.
- generalize: Rare symptom that may progress to generalized tetanus with similar risks.
- have: What should I do if I think my horse has tetanus?
Adjective modifier
- neonatal: In addition, neonatal tetanus kills 200,000 infants in the first month of life every year - nearly a quarter of these in India.
- severe: Sudden cardiac death is a feature of severe tetanus.
- traumatic: The second tetanus type is traumatic tetanus, which is also referred to in England as " lockjaw " .
- ordinary: He stated that death from idiopathic tetanus was rare in this country and that ordinary tetanus in this country was traumatic tetanus.
Modifies a noun
- toxoid: The disease can be prevented by immunization with tetanus toxoid or the use of antitoxin which is routinely carried out in horses.
- antitoxin: Where tetanus has become established, antibodies are used to work against the poison ( known as tetanus antitoxins ).
- jab: Make sure your tetanus jabs are up to date.
- immunoglobulin: This is achieved by treatment with intravenous tetanus immunoglobulin.
- toxin: The vaccine encodes a strong immune alert signal from Fragment C from tetanus toxin.
- immunization: A full course of tetanus immunization consists of five doses of vaccine.
Noun used with modifier
- rat: Investigation of the neuronal aggregate generating seizures in the rat tetanus toxin model of epilepsy.
Browse dictionary entries near tetanus
- tetanize
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- tetarto-
- tetartohedral
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- tetherball
- Tethys
- Teton
