Can you eat eggs if you have tetanus?

Written by Li Jin Quan

General Surgery

Updated on November 26, 2024

00:00

00:00

Tetanus patients should eat more light food, with low fat and sodium content, and avoid strong irritants, such as spicy foods. They can eat more foods containing protein, because sufficient protein in the body can help heal wounds and also provide enough energy for the patients, which is beneficial to their condition. Therefore, tetanus patients can eat a moderate amount of eggs.

Other Voices

home-news-image

Written by Li Chang Yue

General Surgery

41sec

home-news-image

Can a tetanus shot be administered again?

If a tetanus shot is administered within 24 to 48 hours after injury, it can effectively prevent tetanus. However, if the tetanus shot is given a week or more after the injury, the effectiveness and relevance of the booster are generally not ideal. In such cases, tetanus immunoglobulin can be used for comprehensive antibody therapy to treat and prevent tetanus. Therefore, when the body sustains external injuries or certain infectious foci, it is crucial to promptly administer a tetanus shot intramuscularly, ideally within 24 hours, to effectively stimulate the body to produce the corresponding antibodies for protection.

home-news-image

Written by Zhang Peng

General Surgery

46sec

home-news-image

Symptoms of Tetanus

What are the symptoms of tetanus? Generally, the prodromal symptoms include overall weakness, headache, difficulty swallowing, or limited movement of the head and neck. If the condition progresses further, there may be typical symptoms such as difficulty opening the mouth or tense jaw muscles, leading to muscle spasms in the limbs, possibly causing spasms of the larynx, which can lead to breathing difficulties or even suffocation. Hence, it is a particularly severe manifestation. Some individuals may experience generalized tonic muscle spasms throughout the body, a milder manifestation with a typically longer incubation period. Therefore, in the treatment of tetanus, proactive active immunization should be pursued.

home-news-image

Written by Gao Sen

General Surgery

53sec

home-news-image

The likelihood of a wound being infected with tetanus

Tetanus is a specific infection often associated with trauma, with a high contamination rate of tetanus bacillus in traumatic wounds. On the battlefield, the contamination rate can reach 25% to 80%, although the incidence of tetanus in contaminated wounds is only about 10% to 20%. This suggests that other factors are necessary for the disease to occur, with the main factor being an anaerobic environment. If the wound is deep, with a small external opening, and contains necrotic tissue, blood clots, or is too tightly packed, this can lead to local ischemia. Additionally, if there is a co-infection with aerobic bacteria consuming residual oxygen in the wound, it creates an anaerobic environment conducive to the growth of the bacteria, thus increasing the likelihood of tetanus infection in the wound.

home-news-image

Written by Tang Da Wei

General Surgery

44sec

home-news-image

How deep is a tetanus wound?

There is no clear boundary concerning how deep a wound needs to be to carry a risk of tetanus; mainly, it depends on whether the conditions allow for anaerobic bacteria to thrive. Particularly, wounds that are very small on the surface but deep can lead to substantial proliferation of tetanus bacilli. A common example is a foot wound caused by stepping on a nail, where the exterior opening of the wound is small, but it is deep inside, and the nail surface may be rusty and also carry a large amount of tetanus bacilli. If the wound is not promptly and thoroughly cleaned, it can lead to massive growth of tetanus bacilli, resulting in the onset of severe illness in the patient.

home-news-image

Written by Wang Xiang Li

Emergency Medicine

1min 20sec

home-news-image

What should I do if I am allergic to tetanus shots?

The full name of the tetanus shot is tetanus antitoxin serum, which is mainly made from horse serum and has certain allergenic properties. If a patient is allergic to tetanus antitoxin serum, desensitization injections can be used, which involves gradually injecting one milliliter of the tetanus antitoxin serum into the body in four or more sessions, with each injection spaced about twenty to thirty minutes apart. After each injection, it is important to closely observe the patient's reaction, including checking for signs of itching in the nose, hives throughout the body, or difficulty breathing. If any of these symptoms occur, emergency treatment should be administered. If the injections of tetanus antitoxin serum cannot be completed multiple times, or if the patient is unwilling to accept this method of injection, tetanus immunoglobulin can be administered instead of tetanus antitoxin serum. Tetanus immunoglobulin does not require a sensitivity test and can be directly injected into the body without causing an allergic reaction, although it is more expensive.