A six-year-old is suffering from the disease in the United States of Tetanus, after his parents had refused vaccinations. For several weeks the Boy was in intensive care, the treatment costs amounted to more than $ 800,000. For comparison: A Tetanus vaccine Dose costs between 18 and 31 to the Dollar. However, the parents still refuse to let the young against these and other diseases to vaccinate, reports the US-health authorities CDC.
Tetanus is a disease of nerves and muscles, which is caused by the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium Tetani. Spores of the pathogen occur in the earth, you can penetrate through wounds in the body. In General, the bacteria within about a week of discomfort. Without treatment, the disease is life-threatening, the Affected person can suffocate.
The six-year-old in the US ill, after he had contracted while Playing on a farm with a laceration to the forehead. Instead of bringing him to the doctor, cleaned the relatives of the wound itself and the seams. Six days later, the Boy’s convulsions developed, he could not open his mouth properly to drink, throat and neck were stiff. Finally, the breathing stopped.
To drink desire, but he can not open the mouth
Doctors took the boy by helicopter to the children’s hospital, where he had to be ventilated for a week artificial. As stimuli increased his convulsions, was the six-year-old in a darkened room in the ICU, earplugs dampened noise. Nevertheless, he developed severe muscle cramps, pain, hypertension, tachycardia, and a fever of more than 40 degrees Celsius.
Only after more than six weeks, the Doctors were able to stop the artificial respiration and the boy on a normal ward. 57 days after his admission in the hospital, the Doctors released the boy into a rehabilitation facility, where he spent a further 17 days. Thanks to the treatment the infection for the boy ended positively: A month after his arrival home he was able to drive back to the race and bike.
The therapy is actually preventable disease, however, had its price. In addition to the torments, which had to stand by the child, caused the hospital costs in the amount of 811.929 US dollars (the equivalent of about 720,000 euros). Thus, the treatment was around 72 times more expensive than an average stay in a U.S. children’s hospital, reports the U.S. health authorities. Add to this the costs for the Transport in the helicopter, the rehabilitation and subsequent outpatient care.
Who bears the expenditure, the report said. In the United States, it is at least possible that the Boy was not sufficiently insured sick, and the parents must raise the money themselves.
Barely Tetanus cases in Germany
The six-year-old, according to the report, the first child that has the disease within a period of about 30 years in Oregon of Tetanus. In Germany, vaccinations and wound management have minimized the cases of illness. The Robert Koch Institute, it comes a year to around 15 diseases, the most Affected are older adults. They often were not Vaccinated.
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For protection against Tetanus, several doses of vaccine are required. In adults, the effect lasts for around ten years. In children, the first booster vaccination is recommended before Enrolment, a further at the age of nine to 17 years of age. According to the latest Figures from Germany to 2016 were vaccinated, nearly 95 per cent of children at compulsory school age against Tetanus.