I’ll sum it up. They stopped making the td vaccine because of low demand. There still is the tdap vaccine that covers tetanus and some other diseases too but some people can’t have that.
This is nothing concerning, at all. People really know very little about the rarity of actually coming into contact with, must less being infected by, tetanus.
In 2015, there were 34,000 newborns who died of neonatal tetanus as estimated by the WHO. This number is actually a 96% reduction from the amount that died in 1988 after many programs to help improve vaccine access. The tetanus vaccine induces antibodies in a mother which help protect the infant after birth.
Tetanus, without an anti toxin (a form of passive vaccination) and other extensive medical interventions in an intensive care unit, approaches a 100% fatality rate. Treatment includes the active vaccination as well.
Vaccines are a victim of their own success. We’ve had tetanus vaccines since 1924, and the people privileged enough to have had them for multiple generations don’t appreciate what it would be without them. Clostridium tetani is not rare, and is widespread across the entire world in dirt. The disease tetanus is rare only because of widespread access to vaccines.
Get your tetanus shots people.
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-WER9206
Tetanus is in the dirt. Literally all of it. An open wound can get infected not just from rusty nails, but from anything dirty. What you said is absolutely wrong and the only reason you think tetanus is rare is because YOU ARE VACCINATED. Or unvaxxed and lucky.
While I’m definitely not suggesting anyone go against the recommend interval of every ten years, as how long the protection lasts in any one person is variable and there are other pathogens it protects against too, most in the US have had six vaccinations against it by the time they are an adult. In some cases especially after six or more doses and in adults, protection can potentially persist longer then ten years, sometimes decades, giving people like the commenter you’re replying to who may skip a dose the false impression that they didn’t need a vaccine in the first place. But again, do not deviate from the every ten year schedule for lots of good reasons. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure you do not have a very horrific and life changing experience after a minor scrape.
“Rarity of coming into contact with”?
Do you not know that Clostridium Tetani is present in nearly every sample of soil from every region of the globe? Present in the feces of most mammals? It’s literally one of the most widespread bacteria on earth. You only think it’s rare because of how effective vaccination has been.
A friend of mine got it from working at his dad’s auto wrecking business. Started off with a tiny scratch on his finger and within a week ballooned into a 2 week hospital stay and a warning he might be sterile when it was all over (he wasn’t).
Get vaxed for it.
