Five Basic Concepts for Tetanus Prophylaxis

Abstract

As a surgeon, Dr. Wesley Furste has been interested in two anaerobic infections - tetanus and gas gangrene -from the time he served as a surgeon with the United States Army, 22nd Field Hospital, in China in the 1943-1946 period. There, Dr. Furste saw Chinese soldiers who developed tetanus and died because they did not have the benefit of tetanus toxoid. There, also, he saw Chinese soldiers have limbs amputated because gas gangrene developed in bullet and shrapnel wounds which had been closed primarily. At the termination of his Army duty and in the year following, Dr. Furste collaborated in studies concerning the etiology, pathology, clinical picture, prophylaxis and treatment of gas gangrene under a contract with the United States Office of Scientific Research and Development. Dr. Furste's interest in superior tetanus prophylaxis was considerably stimulated when he had to care for the vice president of a large drug and medical instrument distributing company. This patient developed severe serum sickness following the administration of heterologous tetanus antitoxin prepared from horse serum. In 1965, Dr. Furste was invited by President Johnson to attend his White House signing of the Community Health Services Extension Amendments Act of 1965. One of the purposes of this Act of 1965 was to make available throughout the nation adequate amounts of tetanus toxoid. Dr. Furste was an invited essayist and participant at the Second International Conference on Tetanus, which was held in Bern, Switzerland, July 1966.