Tetanus in adult males, Bugando Medical Centre, United Republic of Tanzania.

PROBLEM: In the United Republic of Tanzania, the incidence of non-neonatal circumcision-related tetanus is probably underreported. APPROACH: We analysed charts and extracted information on outcome and wound location for non-neonatal cases of tetanus admitted to the intensive care unit of Bugando Medical Centre between 2001 and 2016. LOCAL SETTING: Bugando Medical Centre, which is one of four teaching referral hospitals in the United Republic of Tanzania, has a 13-bed intensive care unit that manages all admitted patients with tetanus. Within the United Republic of Tanzania, formal programmes of tetanus immunization are targeted at infants or women. RELEVANT CHANGES: From our inpatient logs, we identified six patients with non-neonatal tetanus among male patients with a recent history of circumcision. Only one of these patients had been circumcised within a subnational programme of voluntary medical male circumcision. The other five had been circumcised outside of the programme - e.g. at small rural dispensaries or by a traditional provider with no formal medical training. The six patients were aged 11-55 years and five (83%) of them died in hospital - all of overwhelming sepsis. LESSONS LEARNT: Within the Tanzanian programme of voluntary medical male circumcision, education on wound hygiene probably helps to reduce the incidence of non-neonatal circumcision-related tetanus. The corresponding incidence among the boys and men who are circumcised beyond this subnational programme is probably higher. The training of all circumcision providers in wound care and a vaccination programme to ensure that male Tanzanians receive tetanus immunization post-infancy are recommended.

Pre-post effects of a tetanus care protocol implementation in a sub-Saharan African intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Tetanus is a vaccine-preventable, neglected disease that is life threatening if acquired and occurs most frequently in regions where vaccination coverage is incomplete. Challenges in vaccination coverage contribute to the occurrence of non-neonatal tetanus in sub-Saharan countries, with high case fatality rates. The current WHO recommendations for the management of tetanus include close patient monitoring, administration of immune globulin, sedation, analgesia, wound hygiene and airway support [1]. In response to these recommendations, our tertiary referral hospital in Tanzania implemented a standardized clinical protocol for care of patients with tetanus in 2006 and a subsequent modification in 2012. In this study we aimed to assess the impact of the protocol on clinical care of tetanus patients and their outcomes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We examined provision of care and outcomes among all patients admitted with non-neonatal tetanus to the ICU at Bugando Medical Centre between 2001 and 2016 in this retrospective cohort study. We compared three groups: the pre-protocol group (2001-2005), the Early protocol group (2006-2011), and the Late protocol group (2012-2016) and determined associations with mortality by univariable logistic regression. We observed a significant increase in provision of care as per protocol between the Early and Late groups. Patients in the Late group had a significantly higher utilization of mechanical ventilation (69.9% vs 22.0%, p< 0.0001), provision of surgical wound care (39.8% vs 20.3%, p = 0.011), and performance of tracheostomies (36.8% vs 6.7%, <0.0001) than patients in the Early group. Despite the increased provision of care, we found no significant decrease in overall mortality in the Early versus the Late groups (55.4% versus 40.3%, p = 0.069), or between the pre-protocol and post-protocol groups (60.7% versus 50.0%, p = 0.28). There was also no difference in 7-day ICU mortality (30.1% versus 27.8%, p = 0.70). Analysis of the causes of death revealed a decrease in deaths related to airway compromise (30.0% to 1.8%, p<0.001) but an increase in deaths due to presumed sepsis (15.0% to 44.6%, p = 0.018). CONCLUSION: The overall mortality in patients suffering non-neonatal tetanus is high (>40%). Institution of a standardized tetanus management protocol, in accordance with WHO recommendations, decreased immediate mortality related to primary causes of death after tetanus. However, this was offset by an increase in death due to later ICU complications such as sepsis. Our results illustrate the complexity in achieving mortality reduction even in illnesses thought to require few critical care interventions. Improving basic ICU care and strengthening vaccination programs to prevent tetanus altogether are essential components of efforts to decrease the mortality caused by this lethal, neglected disease.