Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: When to get the tetanus shot
• Part 2 of 3: What is tetanus and how to recognize it
• Part 3 of 3: Treating tetanus
• Tips
• Warnings

Many people know that tetanus shots are given, but do you know when to get them? Tetanus cases in Russia and other developed countries are quite rare due to widespread vaccination. Tetanus is a disease caused by bacteria found in soil, dirt, and animal feces; Since there are no effective drugs for tetanus, getting vaccinated is very important. Disease-causing bacteria form spores, which are very difficult to kill because they are resistant to high temperatures, many drugs and chemicals. Tetanus acts on the nervous system, causing painful muscle spasms, especially in the jaw and neck. It can also make breathing difficult, which is deadly. Because of this, it is important to know when to get a tetanus shot.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: When to get the tetanus shot

1. 1 A second injection of antigen should be given after certain injuries. Typically, bacterial toxins enter the body through breaks in the skin produced by anything containing them. If you have any of the following wounds or injuries that could lead to tetanus, you will need to get another injection. Such damage includes:
   • Any wound that has been exposed to dirt, dirt, or manure.
   • Puncture wounds.Such wounds can be caused by wood splinters, nails, needles, glass, and human or animal bites.
   • Skin burns. Burns of the second (with damage to the dermis, or with blisters) and third (damage to the skin to the full depth) degree are much more dangerous for infection than superficial burns of the first degree.
   • Compression injuries in which injury occurs when tissue is pinched between two hard objects. Such damage can also result from the fall of a heavy object on any part of the body.
   • Wounds in which necrotic, dead tissue forms. Such tissue is not supplied with blood, which increases the risk of infection (as in the case of severely damaged tissue). For example, with gangrene (tissue necrosis), the affected areas are at increased risk of infection.
   • Wounds penetrated by foreign objects. The likelihood of infection is high if foreign objects, such as a splinter, a nail, glass shards, sand, and so on, get into the wound.
2. 2 Know when to get the tetanus shot. If you have never had a primary vaccination (primary vaccination), or if you do not remember how long ago you were last vaccinated against tetanus, you need to get vaccinated. After getting hurt, you may wonder if the vaccine is worth getting. Secondary injection of antigen should be done in the following cases:
   • Although the wound was inflicted by a "clean" object, your last vaccination was more than 10 years ago;
   • the wound was caused by a "dirty" object, and more than 5 years have passed since the last vaccination;
   • you are not sure if the wound was "clean" or "dirty" and more than 5 years have passed since the last tetanus shot.
3. 3 Get vaccinated during pregnancy. To pass tetanus antibodies to your fetus, you should be vaccinated at 27–36 weeks of gestation.
   • Your doctor may recommend an injection of the inactivated AKDS vaccine (Tdap) for pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus during your third trimester.
   • If you have not received the Tdap vaccine before and did not receive the vaccine during pregnancy, it should be given immediately after delivery.
   • If you cut yourself or sustain other damage during pregnancy, contaminating the wound, you will likely need a secondary tetanus shot.
4. 4 Get your vaccinations on time. The best way to combat tetanus is to prevent it. Most people tolerate the vaccine without much problem, but often there is little reaction to it. Such a reaction may consist in local swelling, irritation and redness at the injection site; as a rule, these signs disappear within 1–2 days. Don't be afraid to get an additional tetanus shot. There is usually no need to wait ten years after the first vaccination in order to get the next one. There are several tetanus vaccines:
   • DTP (DTaP). It is a combined vaccine for pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus that is usually given to infants at 2, 4, or 6 months and then repeated between 15 and 18 months of age. This vaccine is very effective for young children. Vaccination should be repeated at the age of 4 to 6 years.
   • AkdS (Tdap). Over time, the body's defense against tetanus decreases, so older children are re-vaccinated. This time the vaccine contains a full dose of tetanus vaccine and fewer diphtheria and pertussis vaccines. Re-vaccination is recommended for all people between the ages of 11 and 18, and is best done at 11–12 years of age.
   • ADS-M (Td). In adulthood, to prevent tetanus, it is recommended to re-vaccinate with ADS-M (Td, tetanus and diphtheria vaccine) every 10 years. Since most people may have a decrease in antibody levels in the body 5 years after vaccination, an unscheduled vaccination is recommended in the case of a deeply contaminated wound if more than five years have passed since the last vaccination.

Part 2 of 3: What is tetanus and how to recognize it

1. 1 Learn how tetanus is tolerated and who is at higher risk. Almost all cases of the disease are reported in those who have never been vaccinated against tetanus, or in adults who have not been boosted 10 or more years after the last.However, tetanus is not spread from person to person, which makes it very different from other vaccine-preventable diseases. Tetanus is carried by bacterial spores, which usually enter the body through breaks in the skin. Once in the body, spores produce a potent neurotoxin that causes muscle spasms and stiffness.
   • Complications of tetanus infection are most often seen in those who have not been vaccinated or in elderly people with reduced immunity, even if they live in developed countries.
   • The risk of contracting tetanus increases after natural disasters, especially in developing countries.
2. 2 Reduce your risk of tetanus. If you are injured or wounded, immediately wash and disinfect it. If you disinfect a wound within 4 hours of receiving it, your risk of getting tetanus increases. This is even more important if during the wound the skin was pierced by a foreign object, through which bacteria and dirt could enter the wound, contributing to their reproduction.
   • Pay attention to whether the object that hurt you was dirty to decide if you should get a tetanus booster shot. On a dirty object, there could be soil or sand, saliva, manure (feces). Remember that you cannot know for sure whether a particular object has bacteria that cause disease.
3. 3 Be aware of the symptoms of the disease. The incubation period for tetanus can last from 3 to 21 days, with an average of 8 days. The severity of the disease is divided into four degrees, from I to IV. As a rule, the more time elapses between infection and the manifestation of the first symptoms, the easier the disease progresses. Common symptoms of tetanus include (in order of appearance):
   • spasms of the muscles of the lower jaw (the so-called "trismus" of the jaw);
   • numbness in the neck;
   • Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
   • numbness of the abdominal muscles.
4. 4 Be aware of other tetanus symptoms. When diagnosing tetanus, they rely entirely on its symptoms. There are no blood tests that can indicate this disease, so it is important to pay attention to any symptoms. Fever, excessive sweating, high blood pressure, and rapid heartbeat (tachycardia) may also indicate illness. Potential complications include:
   • laryngospasm, or laryngeal spasm that makes breathing difficult;
   • bone fractures;
   • convulsions, convulsions;
   • abnormal heart rate;
   • secondary infections such as pneumonia resulting from prolonged hospitalization;
   • pulmonary embolism, or the formation of blood clots in the lungs;
   • death (in 10% of registered cases, the disease leads to death).

Part 3 of 3: Treating tetanus

1. 1 See your doctor. If you think or simply suspect that you have tetanus, seek immediate medical attention. This must be done as quickly as possible. You are immediately hospitalized because tetanus is characterized by a high number of deaths (10%). At the hospital, you will be given tetanus toxoid, tetanus immune globulin. It neutralizes the toxin that has not yet penetrated into the nerve tissue. Your wound will be thoroughly cleaned and given a tetanus vaccine to prevent future infections.
   • Infection with tetanus does not guarantee future immunity. To prevent re-infection, you should get vaccinated.
2. 2 Your doctor will prescribe a course of treatment for you. Since blood tests cannot detect tetanus, laboratory tests are useless in this case. In view of this, if tetanus is suspected, doctors usually do not expect more obvious manifestations of the disease, but immediately use active treatments.
   • When making a diagnosis, doctors rely mainly on the observed symptoms and clinical signs. The more severe the symptoms, the more immediate action is needed.
3. 3 Relief of tetanus symptoms. Since there are no effective drugs for tetanus, treatment is focused on relieving symptoms and preventing possible complications. The patient is given antibiotics intravenously, intramuscularly or orally; drugs are also used to reduce muscle spasms.
   • Some drugs that help reduce muscle spasms are sedatives like the benzodiazepine, such as diazepam (Valium Roche), lorazepam (Lorafen), alprazolam (Xanax), and midazolam (Dormikum).
   • Antibiotics are usually not effective in treating tetanus, but they can be prescribed to prevent the pathogen, tetanus bacillus, from multiplying. This reduces the amount of tetanus toxin excreted.

Tips

• There are tetanus vaccines that also protect against diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) or diphtheria only (Td). Both vaccines work for 10 years.
• You can check your health record for the exact date of your last tetanus shot, which contains a list of all vaccinations you received. Some people have a separate immunization card in their clinic, where information about all vaccinations received is entered.
• If you are at risk of infection, make sure you understand the early symptoms of tetanus and the signs of complications it may cause. The spasms can become so severe that they interfere with normal breathing. Severe cramps sometimes damage the spine or long bones.
• Better to be safe than sorry later: if you are concerned about the likelihood of contracting tetanus, just get the vaccine.
• A couple of rare diseases have symptoms similar to tetanus. Malignant hyperthermia is a hereditary disorder that manifests itself under general anesthesia and causes sudden fever and violent muscle contractions. Stiffness syndrome is an extremely rare disorder of the nervous system that causes recurrent muscle spasms. Symptoms of this disease usually appear after forty years.

Warnings

• Seek medical attention if serious injury or injury occurs. If you suspect that you have become infected with tetanus bacteria, do not wait for symptoms to appear before initiating appropriate treatment. There are no effective drugs for tetanus, and treatment is limited to suppressing symptoms before they develop.