tetanus
E928075
Tetanus is a serious, often life-threatening infectious disease of the nervous system caused by the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium tetani, leading to painful muscle stiffness and spasms.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| tetanus canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11466968 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tetanus Context triple: [Firmicutes, associatedWith, tetanus]
-
A.
diphtheria
Diphtheria is a serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, characterized by sore throat, fever, and a thick gray membrane in the throat that can obstruct breathing.
-
B.
Antrax
Antrax is a powerful, ancient artificial intelligence and primary antagonist in Terry Brooks's Shannara fantasy series, known for hoarding lost technology and ruthlessly defending it.
-
C.
diphtheria antitoxin
Diphtheria antitoxin is a serum-based immune therapy that neutralizes the toxin produced by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, used to treat and prevent the severe complications of diphtheria infection.
-
D.
Tetanurae
Tetanurae is a major clade of theropod dinosaurs that includes birds and their closest non-avian relatives, characterized by stiff tails and other shared skeletal features.
-
E.
Anthrax
Anthrax is an American thrash metal band, considered one of the genre’s “Big Four” alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tetanus Target entity description: Tetanus is a serious, often life-threatening infectious disease of the nervous system caused by the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium tetani, leading to painful muscle stiffness and spasms.
-
A.
diphtheria
Diphtheria is a serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, characterized by sore throat, fever, and a thick gray membrane in the throat that can obstruct breathing.
-
B.
Antrax
Antrax is a powerful, ancient artificial intelligence and primary antagonist in Terry Brooks's Shannara fantasy series, known for hoarding lost technology and ruthlessly defending it.
-
C.
diphtheria antitoxin
Diphtheria antitoxin is a serum-based immune therapy that neutralizes the toxin produced by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, used to treat and prevent the severe complications of diphtheria infection.
-
D.
Tetanurae
Tetanurae is a major clade of theropod dinosaurs that includes birds and their closest non-avian relatives, characterized by stiff tails and other shared skeletal features.
-
E.
Anthrax
Anthrax is an American thrash metal band, considered one of the genre’s “Big Four” alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (59)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
infectious disease
ⓘ
toxin-mediated disease ⓘ vaccine-preventable disease ⓘ |
| affectsSystem |
musculoskeletal system
ⓘ
nervous system ⓘ |
| causativeAgent |
Clostridium tetani
ⓘ
linked to:
Clostridium
|
| hasCause | tetanospasmin toxin ⓘ |
| hasComplication |
aspiration pneumonia
ⓘ
autonomic dysfunction ⓘ bone fractures from severe spasms ⓘ death ⓘ respiratory failure ⓘ |
| hasForm |
cephalic tetanus
ⓘ
generalized tetanus ⓘ localized tetanus ⓘ neonatal tetanus ⓘ |
| hasHighMortalityWithoutTreatment | true ⓘ |
| hasIncubationPeriod |
3 to 21 days
ⓘ
commonly about 8 days ⓘ |
| hasPathophysiology |
disinhibition of motor neurons causes sustained muscle contraction
ⓘ
toxin blocks inhibitory neurotransmitter release ⓘ |
| hasRiskFactor |
burns
ⓘ
contaminated wounds ⓘ crush injuries ⓘ diabetes-related foot ulcers ⓘ inadequate vaccination ⓘ injecting drug use ⓘ necrotic tissue ⓘ puncture wounds ⓘ unsterile obstetric or surgical procedures ⓘ |
| hasSymptom |
dysphagia
ⓘ
fever ⓘ hypertension ⓘ lockjaw ⓘ muscle stiffness ⓘ opisthotonos ⓘ painful muscle spasms ⓘ rigid abdominal muscles ⓘ sweating ⓘ tachycardia ⓘ trismus ⓘ |
| isMoreCommonIn | low- and middle-income countries ⓘ |
| isNotEradicableByHumanToHumanControl | true ⓘ |
| isTargetOf | global vaccination programs ⓘ |
| nonTransmissibleBetweenHumans | true ⓘ |
| notifiableDiseaseInManyCountries | true ⓘ |
| occursWorldwide | true ⓘ |
| preventedBy |
DTaP vaccine
ⓘ
Td vaccine ⓘ
linked to:
Tdap vaccine
Tdap vaccine ⓘ proper wound care ⓘ tetanus toxoid vaccine ⓘ |
| transmission |
contamination of wounds with C. tetani spores
ⓘ
environmental exposure to soil containing C. tetani spores ⓘ |
| treatedBy |
benzodiazepines
ⓘ
human tetanus immune globulin ⓘ mechanical ventilation ⓘ metronidazole ⓘ neuromuscular blocking agents ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: tetanus Description of subject: Tetanus is a serious, often life-threatening infectious disease of the nervous system caused by the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium tetani, leading to painful muscle stiffness and spasms.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.