Unwrapping the gift of life

SInce we were children, we've all known about the 'anti-tet' jab, the first call if any of us came home from playing with a nasty cut. "When was the last ant-tetanus injection?" was the nurse or doctor's question if the injury was enough to need their attention. And indeed, pretty well every mother kept a note of the last time for each of their children.



Tetanus kills. But in our part of the world we take it for granted that we are, or can be, immunised easily and cheaply. But what if you live in an undeveloped community in many parts of the non-industrialised world? What if you are a mum giving birth in the bush, or in another less than clean environment? Your baby has a good chance of dying. So have you.

Local mother and writer Hazel Gaynor has been concerned about this recently. Especially after being invited to spread the word through her blog and other places about the tetanus vaccine campaign being run by UNICEF in association with nappy maker Pampers.

The campaign aims to provide 100 million tetanus vaccines this year. Further, it has the ambitious target to eliminate the disease completely by 2012.

"This year alone, 128,000 newborn babies will die as a resulty of acquiring tetanus," she says. "Along with literally thousands of mothers. And the tragedy is that the disease is entirely preventable."

Although a newborn baby in areas where tetanus is an endemic risk may appear perfectly healthy, symptoms can appear with days of the birth. It affects the mouth and facial muscles first, tightening them up until they can no longer breastfeed due to the 'lockjaw', the common name for the disease.

"It can quickly affect the rest of the body and eventually the baby is unable to breathe," says Hazel, who has two young children of her own. "Here in Ireland, mums like me have already given the gift of life to our own children. By supporting the campaign, this gift can be given to other babies."

After meeting with the campaign's personality ambassador, actress Natascha McElhone, and hearing her visits to vulnerable communities in places such as Angola, Hazel is very much taking an active part locally in the UNICEF/Pampers campaign.

"She told of seeing first hand the impact of earlier campaigns, of women and children living in communities without so much as a clean sterilised knife to cut a newborn's umbilical cord. It loeft me feeling that we live thoroughly spoilt and pampered lives, yet we can do something incredibly simple to help."

The 'incredibly simple' thing is to buy the products from Pampers -- nappies of wipes -- which promote the campaign. For every pack sold, Pampers will donate one vaccine unit to the campaign.

"If your children are out of nappies, maybe buy a pack for a friend with young children, or a packet of wipes. Or you can donate by clicking the special button on the Pampers website, or on my blog hotcrossmum.blogspot.com."

Hazel is also visiting chreches and pre-schools in the area, talking about the campaign to children and their mothers, and helping the kids play a 'pass the parcel' game which also results in further Pampers donations of tetanus vaccines.

The 2009 campaign finishes at the end of December. But a new one next year will continue the fight.