study<\/a>, published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, was based on case data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System from 2009 to 2023.<\/p>\n\u201cTetanus is a serious vaccine-preventable disease caused by the toxin produced by\u00a0Clostridium tetani, a spore-forming bacterium that is ubiquitous in the environment,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cTetanus is not transmitted person-to-person; exposure usually occurs through a contaminated or deep wound,\u201d causing symptoms such as muscle spasms, rigidity, difficulty swallowing or breathing, lockjaw, and seizures.<\/p>\n
45% with wound sought care before disease onset<\/p>\n
During the study period, 402 tetanus infections and 37 deaths were reported from 47 states and Washington, DC, for an average annual incidence of 0.08 cases and 0.008 deaths per 1 million people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tetanus is a serious vaccine-preventable disease caused by the toxin produced by\u00a0Clostridium tetani, a spore-forming bacterium that is ubiquitous in the environment.<\/p>\n
Over half (62.2%) of cases occurred in males, who had a higher incidence than women among patients older than 65 years, but rates were higher in women than men for those aged 80 and older (0.27 cases per 1 million people). The case-fatality rate among patients with known vital status was 12.4% (37 of 299), with deaths primarily in older adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In total, 45.0% of tetanus patients with a substantial wound sought care before symptom onset. Among those with wounds eligible for tetanus post-exposure prevention, only 2.3% received tetanus immune globulin (TIG), and 26% received tetanus toxoid\u2013containing vaccine (TTCV). Among patients with known vaccination history, 43.9% hadn\u2019t received any TTCV doses.<\/p>\n
The researchers urged clinicians to evaluate for and offer routine tetanus vaccination for children, as well as 10-year boosters for adults. \u201cIn addition, persons with significant wounds should seek timely medical care, and clinicians should provide recommended wound care, including identifying tetanus-prone wounds and the need for and administration of TTCV and TIG.\u201d<\/p>\n
They called for continued surveillance and vaccination efforts to monitor trends, prevent tetanus, and reduce incidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"vladans \/ iStock Despite the wide availability of tetanus vaccines, US cases of the life-threatening disease continue to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-400380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Wound\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tetanus.png\")