How common is tetanus in the United States?
Tetanus first became a notifiable disease in the late 1940s. At that time, there were 500-600 cases reported per year. After the introduction of the tetanus vaccine in the mid-1940s, reported cases of tetanus dropped steadily. In recent years, about 40 cases have occurred each year in the United States. Most cases have been among persons 50 years of age or older, although recently an increasing number of cases have been reported in younger persons, primarily injecting drug users. Almost all cases of tetanus are in persons who have never been vaccinated, or who completed their childhood series, but did not have a booster dose in the preceding 10 years. What is neonatal tetanus? Neonatal tetanus is a form of tetanus that occurs in newborn infants, most often through the use of an unsterile cutting instrument on the unhealed umbilical stump. These babies usually have no temporary immunity passed on from their mother because their mother hasn’t been vaccinated and therefore has no immunity
