What is the causative organism of tetanus (neonatal tetanus)?
Tetanus is caused by bacteria Clostridium tetani, which is gram-positive rod. Clostridium tetani is a motile and an anaerobic (grows in absence of air or oxygen) organism. Clostridium tetani is worldwide in distribution and found in soil, animal feces, and inanimate objects (at the tip of thorns, iron nails and in many other objects) and sometimes even in human excreta. The specialty of Clostridium tetani is its ability to form “spores” which are colorless, oval, and look like drumstick or tennis racket. The spores can survive for years (may be decades) in some environment and become vegetative form when the environment is favorable. The spores of Clostridium tetani are resistant to boiling for 20 minutes and also resistant to several disinfectants, which makes it very difficult to remove from environment. But the vegetative forms are easily deactivated by various antibiotics (penicillin, metronidazole etc.) and normal disinfection procedures.
