People are being warned by the Department of Health (DOH) that if they have received any fire-cracker related injury during new Year celebration, they could probably get infected with tetanus.
Dr. Eric Tayag, Director of DOH-National Epidemiology Center (NEC), is urging people to get immediate treatment if they received firecracker-related injuries so as to safeguard themselves against tetanus. Tetanus is bacteria that infects wounds and if left untreated, could prove deadly.
He says that one affected with tetanus exhibits symptoms such as lockjaw, high fever, headache and weakness and the illness could crop up from eight days to three weeks after receiving the injury.
On Monday, the DOH revealed that the number of injuries received during the new Year festivities surged to 891, including 844 caused by firecrackers, 36 by stray bullets and 11 by fireworks’ intake. Most of the firecracker-related injuries were the result of the use of piccolo, kwitis and 5-star.
Majority of the causalities i. e. 55% were found in Metro Manila and among them 95% of the cases were consequences of firecrackers’ use, 4% of stray bullets and 1% of firework ingestion.
Tayag told that they were providing treatment to patients affected with all kinds of injuries.Image Copyright: ABF@commonswiki (under Creative Commons license)