ABSTRACT
Tetanus is a potentially preventable neurological infectious disorder with paucity of literature in Bangladesh. We aimed to see the demography and symptom profile of tetanus cases managed at the Infectious disease Hospital Sylhet. This hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted within the time period of January to December 2012 among 50 consecutive admitted patients in the Infectious Disease Hospital, Sylhet, Bangladesh who were diagnosed as a case of tetanus and fulfilling the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Neonatal tetanus was considered as exclusion criteria and clinical diagnosis of tetanus was considered as the tetanus. Data were collected purposively with pretested predesigned questionnaire. Data were processed manually and analyzed with the help of SPSS Version 16.0. The mean±SD age was 33.00±16.8 years, ranging from 10 to 70 years. Among the 50 respondents, 72.0% were male, 50% from lower class, 34% were students and 30.0% had their educational status of primary level, 60.0% from rural social background. Trismus was found in 98.0% of the cases, rigidity in 96.0% cases, body ache in 94.0% cases, dysphagia in 92.0% cases, neck pain in 78.0% cases, dysarthria in 92.0% cases, reflex spasm in 66.0% cases, opisthotonus in 46.0% cases and urinary retention in 26.0% cases. In this study rural male people with lower socioeconomic status individuals were mostly affected with trismus, rigidity, body ache and dysphagia symptoms.
