Tetanus kills 21 quake survivors in Indonesia

JAKARTA, June 16 (Reuters) Tetanus has killed at least 21 earthquake survivors in Indonesia out of at least 60 known cases of the infection there, the Health Ministry today said.

The World Health Organisation had earlier said the disease has killed 18 of 53 known tetanus cases.

Indonesian health workers and the United Nations agency had been conducting vaccination campaigns against tetanus and measles after the May 27 quake around Yogyakarta that killed more than 5,700 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

The ministry sent 12,400 anti-tetanus vials to Yogyakarta and Central Java a day after the earthquake. The ministry said 37 people were undergoing treatment in hospital and another two had been cured.

''The disease emerges as people are going home to clean debris and rebuild their houses. Most of them are elderly men,'' health minister Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters.

''We think that (the anti-tetanus vials) are sufficient at the moment,'' she said.

Sanitation has emerged as a major concern for Indonesia's earthquake survivors, many of whom are poor labourers now living under plastic sheets and tarpaulins and in donated tents.

Tetanus, the only vaccine-preventable disease that is not communicable but acquired through exposure to bacteria, usually occurs after an acute injury when dirt enters a wound or cut, causing infection.

Also known as lockjaw, tetanus affects the body's muscles and nerves, with the first symptoms usually a headache and muscular stiffness in the jaw.

If untreated, it can lead to seizure-like activity and complications such as a form of pneumonia.

REUTERS SB BST1819