Tetanus is horrible! Get your tetanus boosters!
Don’t watch this video if you have a weak stomach
Tetanus is caused by a toxin that is released by a bacterium called Clostridium tetani. The C. tetani bacteria live in the intestines of many kinds of animal. As a result, they are common in the environment. They are particularly common in farmyards, where there is plenty of manure. However, spores of the C. tetani bacteria can be found everywhere.
The C. tetani bacteria can easily enter the body through any break in the skin. C. tetani thrive in places where there is little oxygen. Thus, they can easily infect deep wounds, such as puncture wounds.
The C. tetani bacteria then produce toxins that attack the nervous system. The shorter nerves are affected first. That’s why the muscles that affect the jaw are affected first. The tetanus vaccine is made out of the tetanus toxoid, which is tetanus toxin that has been damaged (denatured) so that it can no longer cause tetanus. The tetanus toxoid vaccine is usually combined in one shot with two other toxoid vaccines: one against diphtheria and the other against pertussis (whooping cough).
Tetanus used to be common in newborns because the C. tetani bacteria can infect the stump of the umbilical cord, especially if the cord was cut with something that was not sterile. Today, pregnant women are given tetanus boosters, so that they can give the baby anti-tetanus antibodies through the placenta before birth and through breast milk after birth.
Tetanus has been a common complication of military wounds. This famous painting from 1809 shows a soldier dying horribly of tetanus after a gunshot wound at the Battle of Corunna.
Thanks to the development of the tetanus toxoid vaccine, there were only 12 cases of tetanus among U.S. servicemen who were wounded in World War II. Of those cases, only 4 were in men who had received all of their vaccines. There was only 1 case of tetanus among U.S. servicemen in the Korean War. That case occurred in a man who was injured in an accident but did not receive a tetanus toxoid booster at the time of the accident.
The tetanus toxoid vaccine does not provide lifelong protection. People need a booster shot every 10 years or so. Booster shots are also given to people who have received an injury that could pose a risk of tetanus.
A case of tetanus can be treated. But even with the best of modern medical treatment, about 10% of tetanus patients die. In one case in New Zealand, an intentionally unvaccinated child caught tetanus. He had to be hospitalized in the intensive care ward, where he was put into a medically induced coma and given paralyzing drugs to stop the agonizingly painful muscle spasms. A breathing hole (tracheotomy) was cut into his throat to help him breathe. The doctors expected that he would remain in the intensive care ward for 6 weeks and in the hospital for 4 months. They expected that it would take him a full year to recover.