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You're supposed to get a tetanus booster every 10 years, oftener if you work with animals. The shot is no big deal - go get it and have some peace of mind.
An unvaccinated child recently got tetanus in Oregon.
"This child began developing symptoms six days after his accident. These included "episodes of crying, jaw clenching, and involuntary upper extremity muscle spasms, followed by arching of the neck and back (opisthotonus) and generalized spasticity," as described in the report. Then, he started having difficulty breathing, which prompted the parents to contact emergency medical services. To give you sense of the severity of his condition, he had to be airlifted to the hospital.
When he got to the hospital, he had spasms in his jaw muscles, otherwise known as trismus. Therefore, even though he was thirsty, he couldn't open his mouth to drink. Since he couldn't breathe on his own either, doctors had to sedate him, put a breathing tube down his throat, and connect him to a ventilator. They gave him 3,000 units of tetanus immune globulin, the diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP), and antibiotics. A six-year-old on a mechanical ventilator is not a pleasant sight.
Things got worse before they got better. The neck and back arching got more severe. His heart began racing. He developed high blood pressure. His body temperature went up to 104.9° F. He continued to have muscle spasms. These situations necessitated various different medications and 44 days on the mechanical ventilator. During that time, he also couldn't eat or drink anything, relying on intravenous fluids and feeding.
Fortunately, modern medicine rescued the child. Tetanus can be deadly, with 13.2% of people who get tetanus not surviving.. But this boy survived and eventually returned to running and bicycling.
All told, this six-year-old was in the intensive care unit for 47 days, other parts of the hospital for 10 more days (for a total of 57 days in the hospital), and then at a rehabilitation center for 17 additional days. This was expensive as heck, resulting in $811,929 in hospital charges, which is much, much more than a vaccine costs. This sum did not even include other costs such as the air transport that was involved in getting him to the hospital in the first place, the stay in the rehabilitation center, and the follow-up that occurred in outpatient clinics.
Oh, guess what. After all of this happened, after seeing their child go through this ordeal, after hearing the doctors explain the risks and benefits of the tetanus vaccine, the child's family still refused to allow their child to get a second dose of the DTaP vaccine and any other recommended routine vaccine. Obviously, over $800K in medical costs and seeing their child on a ventilator was not enough to sway their minds."
Please be smarter than these parents. Get your tetanus shot.
Edited to add: Plus, do you really want to be the subject of a CD thread saying how a member was told to get a shot, didn't, was in ICU with a million dollar hospital bill and ended up being used as the next bad example?
Do I need to get the shot or booster? I had a shot a really long time ago and don’t remember getting any boosters in the last 10 years.
Do I need to get the shot or booster? I had a shot a really long time ago and don’t remember getting any boosters in the last 10 years.
Your doctor will tell you which one you need, it'll probably be a booster. Whichever it is you still need to go to the doctor to get it and it's a minor nothing to worry about procedure.
It's a myth that you get tetanus from rusty metal-- Tetanus is an anaerobic bug, so it's puncture wounds that seal themselves quickly, excluding air (with oxygen) from the inoculum that are the bigger problem-- particularly if the puncture was caused by something organic like a thorn or if a wound is contaminated with dirt- loaded with all sorts of bacteria like tetanus or anthrax.
The "tetanus booster every ten yrs" is a recommendation without any science to recommend it. Circulating levels of tetanus antibodies are next to zero just a yr or so after a vaccination, and nobody is brave enough to see how strong or effective the anamnestic response to a challenge with tetanus is in subjects yrs after their last shot.
Meanwhile, the lawyers insist everyone get a booster every ten yrs and at the time of any wound.
Well, what are the options? At least they aren't saying every 5 years...some things ya just gotta do even if the ROI doesn't quite work out...that is, unless you're willing to take the risk.
Do I need to get the shot or booster? I had a shot a really long time ago and don’t remember getting any boosters in the last 10 years.
You’ll get a TDaP - Tetanus, Diphtheria and pertussis (aka whooping cough). They’ll give you whatever dosage is appropriate based on what you’ve already had.
I’m actually going on Friday for the same thing. While immunity to the T and D part lasts 10 years, whether the P (pertussis) does is debatable. Since my last one was 8 years ago and I have my first grandchild on the way, I want to make sure I’m covered. Passing whooping cough to an infant can be fatal.
Like so many other things you have to weigh the risks for yourself. If I was someone who sat in a perfectly clean house every day doing nothing more risky than roaming the internet, never set foot into the uncontrollable bacteria-coated world outside maybe a tetanus booster would be superfluous. Frankly I'm not. I would much rather get a widely non-controversial (and apparently 100% effective) booster against a preventable infection and stop wondering, than rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills spending a month or more on a ventilator. Lying in a hospital full of sick folks until the effects of the toxin run their course isn't all that safe either.
Last edited by Parnassia; 04-10-2019 at 01:29 PM..
OP, you already had a thread on this same subject. I am deleting your other thread but both told you the same thing. Please do not start duplicate threads.
I made no recommendations about tetanus boosters in my previous post, only stated the "official" recommendations. The rate of symptomatic tetanus infection in the US is very low: 1 in 10 million people each year. (It is a bad infection if you get it with mortality 1 in 8 cases.)--but few people follow the recommendations about routine boosters, and the incidence is still rare.--it could be the boosters aren't doing much because the continued immunity from the first vaccine you get is good enough...And if you get a wound bad enough to seek medical attention, you should get the booster at that time.
death from tetanus -- 1 in 20,000,000 per yr
death in MVA-- 1 in 10,000 per yr.... that's 2000x more common than tetanus
I used the word "booster" for poetic reasons-- the follow up shots are the same as the original. Most of us got dTP x 3 as young kids, then dT at age 9 & 15. Ten or more yrs later, if you ask for additional shots, you'll probably get dT again, just because the doc's office stocks that anyway and doesn't want an additional, rarely used med that will go bad before it's used up taking up space in the fridge.
You’ll get a TDaP - Tetanus, Diphtheria and pertussis (aka whooping cough). They’ll give you whatever dosage is appropriate based on what you’ve already had.
I’m actually going on Friday for the same thing. While immunity to the T and D part lasts 10 years, whether the P (pertussis) does is debatable. Since my last one was 8 years ago and I have my first grandchild on the way, I want to make sure I’m covered. Passing whooping cough to an infant can be fatal.
Yeah I got the TDaP shot at the pharmacy. It was a booster shot.
I also wanted the TD shot but I’m only able to get one shot they said
I told the pharmacist that I got my first tetanus shot when I was a child like 20 years ago and don’t remember taking any booster shots in the last 10 years unless I had one back in high school which I can’t remember
I hope I won’t get tetanus after hitting my head on a rusted door hinge
No blood, no need.......sorry you got so much fear......
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