The last time I visited a friend in a hospital, she left me in shock. Seeing someone suffer from tetanus has left me asking many questions. One of them is, “Can a kitchen knife cause tetanus?” It is obvious that our environment can be very clean yet harbor microorganisms that can harm our health. Unfortunately, these microorganisms live around us, and any small cut can trigger their penetration into our body to cause us harm.
Kitchen knives are known to be of different shapes and sharps. Many of them are used to cut meat and other strong cooking materials in the kitchen. This is the reason why many people prefer to keep their kitchen knives constantly clean and sharp. When you keep it sharp, you are sure that the next time you may want to make use of it, it will be ready. However, we may not know when it will happen—an injury from these kitchen knives. We cannot beat our chests in assurance and say that we know exactly when we may sustain a cut from the knife or what exactly to do if we sustain the cut.
While the sight of one suffering from this illness is horrible, avoiding everything that can lead us to have this infection remains the best solution to it. Unfortunately, it may fail us sometimes. What is tetanus, and how far can it go to affect us?
What is tetanus?
Tetanus comes as a result of an open wound. It can come as a result of skin cuts by your kitchen knife or through your dirty wounds. To be on the safe side, it is important that you take a shot of tetanus toxoid whenever you have a cut on your skin. This will help to offer you protection against the microbe.
Tetanus is a medical condition or disease that is known to be caused by Clostridium tetani bacteria. This microorganism that causes this disease is known to be within the soil and other particles that are already exposed. It gets into your body through open spaces like wounds around your skin. This condition causes persistent spasms in your muscles and can also lead to contractures that are not voluntary.
It is, therefore, very important to apply every preventive measure to ensure that your wounds are clean, including those caused by nails and other metallic substances. If you keep your skin free of wounds, it will be hard for this Clostridium tetani to infect you and cause involuntary muscle movement.
What should we do when we have a knife cut?
It is not every time you have a cut from your kitchen knife that you should be worried about infection from it. You need to know that open skin is a simple infection for microbes to colonize. The infective organism may not be tetanus; it can be staphylococcus or streptococci, as the case may be. When you have this infection, it will trigger an immune response that can appear as some symptoms.
Therefore, whenever you sustain a wound from your kitchen utensil, you will need to clean the site and ensure that the bleeding has stopped before you continue to do other things. You can also cover the site with a clean piece of cloth and ensure that all that is around the wound is clean. This will greatly help you to be safe.
If you begin to manifest symptoms you are not sure about, you can visit your physician to learn more about it. Your physician can prescribe medication according to his diagnosis.
Finally, can a kitchen knife cause tetanus?
A kitchen knife on its own does not cause tetanus but when you have a cut on your skin through the sharp knives, it becomes a risk factor.
