How Much Do You Know About Toxic Shock Syndrome?
TSS claims lives in the US each year.
- – 40% of those affected are girls between 13-19 years old
- – This condition is preventable, but deadly if untreated
1 in 100,000 women will get TSS in the US each year.
All menstruating women using tampons are at risk of TSS.
Did you know? Young girls have a higher risk of getting TSS.
A Scary Encounter With TSS: At Camp
What You Should Know about Toxic Shock Syndrome
The term toxic shock syndrome (TSS) refers to a rare complication from a bacterial infection often resulting in life-threatening consequences. Frequently, TSS occurs from toxins released by the Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria, but the Streptococcus pyogenes (strep) bacteria can also cause the condition. These toxins circulate throughout the bloodstream, causing high fever, rash, multiple organ system failures, and hypotension.
TSS History and Risk Factors
Physicians first saw the often-fatal condition in children in 1978, but it later became associated with super-absorbent tampons and contraceptive sponges. An epidemic of the condition sprung up in 1981; authorities linked it to women using a certain type of super-absorbent tampons. Healthcare providers see the most common types of TSS in menstruating women; tampon use encourages the proliferation of bacteria that grows naturally in the vagina. Even so, men and postmenopausal women can also become infected. Risk factors, in addition to super-absorbent tampon use, include open skin wounds, nasal packing, childbirth and surgery.
Tampon Awareness
By Natracare
Toxic Shock Syndrome was back in the headlines recently following an investigation on US television about the tampon related death of Amy Elifritz.
In response women around the world have been asking what is in their tampon and are there any potential health risks?
Natracare raised the issue of fibre loss in conventional tampons at least 15 years ago. The reaction from those conventional brands was that the body naturally dispels the fibres. We asked nurses doing smear tests and they said that they can always tell who uses tampons because they have to remove old tampon fibres before achieving a clear smear for sampling. Conventional tampons mostly use rayon to make their tampons. Rayon is a straight, smooth fibre made from wood pulp. These smooth fibres have little integrity so they slide apart more easily when wet. Eventually, these same manufacturers who claimed fibre loss was not an issue, decided to put a polypropylene (that’s plastic to you and me) non-woven wrapper around the rayon core to reduce the loss of fibres.
TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME QUIZ
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