Neonatal Tetanus are We Winning the War?

Aims: To determine if we are winning the war against deaths from Neonatal tetanus.

Study Design: Retrospective descriptive study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) between1995 to 2014.

Methodology: Hospital records on Neonatal tetanus cases treated at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching to Hospital from 1st January 1995 to 31st December 2014 were reviewed. The records were retrieved and reviewed for age, sex, presenting complaint, mother’s immunization status, mother’s educational status, examination findings, duration of hospitalization and outcome of illness.

Results: Three hundred and thirteen neonates comprising 182(58%) males and 129(41%) females were treated, 2(0.006%) did not have any record of their sex. Most of the mothers were unimmunized and delivered outside health facilities. One hundred and sixty two (51.7%) of the newborns with neonatal tetanus in this study died.

Conclusion: There appears to be an upward trend in mortality of Neonatal tetanus cases as the previous review of neonatal tetanus in UPTH between 1995 to 2009 gave a mortality of 50% while the data for cases managed from 2009 to 2014 gave a higher mortality rate of 68.75% and as such we are not winning the war, the battle rages on.