Necessity Of Vaccination

Tetanus: Effect of Vitamin C in the Treatment of Tetanus

Captured 2023-03-19
Document Highlights

This important study was conducted in Bangladesh, where at the time of the research tetanus accounted for 26 percent of all infant deaths.

Sixty-two tetanus patients aged 1 to 12 years and 55 patients aged 13 to 30 years received conventional antitetanus therapy. Additionally, 31 members of the younger group and 27 of the older group received injections of 1 gram of ascorbic acid [vitamin c] daily as a supplement to conventional therapy.

In the younger group receiving vitamin C, zero percent died, while 74 percent of those who did not get the injections failed to survive.

In the older group, 37 percent of those who got the vitamin C died, while 68 percent of those who did not get the vitamin C succumbed.

The effect of daily intravenous administration of 1,000 mg ascorbic acid (AA) in tetanus patients aged 1-30 years was studied. In the age group of 1-12 years, 31 patients were treated with AA as additional to antitetanus serum, sedatives and antibiotics.

Editor’s note: For those who insist on hard-nosed data before admitting the efficacy of injectable vitamin C, this study from Bangladesh should be an eye-opener. In 1937, Claus W. Jungeblut of Columbia University reported that vitamin C could neutralize tetanus toxin in guinea pigs. By 1954, Dr. Fred Klenner was using injectable vitamin C to treat tetanus in his medical practice. This research from Bangladesh validates Jungblut and Klenner’s finding in a rigorous medical trial using a control group.

It must be concluded that vitamin C, as far as its in vitro action is concerned, cannot be regarded as a specific detoxicant for any given virus or toxin, but rather as a substance which acts indiscriminately against a variety of toxins and viruses.

[T]he potential cost-benefit ratio of more research into and wider use of injectable vitamin C by mainstream medicine is too great to continue to ignore, especially in a world overflowing with medical need.

A total number of 117 tetanus patients addmitted into the Infectious Disease Hospital, Mohakhali, Dhaka were studied.

Comments

Published in 1984. Abstract on the NIH website, here.

Additional information on the effectiveness of vitamin C on tetanus, in a meta-analysis from the Cochrane Collaboration, published in 2013:

"In animal studies, vitamin C has protected against various infections and bacterial toxins. In a study with rats, vitamin C protected against the purified tetanus toxin."

"One single trial was eligible for inclusion. This non‐randomised, unblinded, controlled trial undertaken in Bangladesh involved 117 tetanus patients. Vitamin C at a dosage of 1 g/day was administered intravenously alongside conventional treatment."

"In the tetanus patients aged 1 to 12 years (n = 62), vitamin C treatment was associated with a 100% reduction in case fatality rate. In patients aged 13 to 30 years (n = 55), vitamin C treatment was associated with a 45% reduction in case fatality rate."

"[C]oncerns about trial quality mean that this result must be interpreted with caution and vitamin C cannot be recommended as a treatment for tetanus on the basis of this evidence. New trials should be carried out to examine the effect of vitamin C on tetanus treatment."

The existence of a vaccine for any infectious disease tends to limit further research for alternative therapeutics or treatments. No other clinical trials on vitamin C in tetanus have been conducted.