About Tetanus:
[quote author=Adults Don't Need Booster Shot of Diphtheria, Tetanus
Dr.s Joseph Mercola and Sherri Tenpenny ]Discovering that most people recover from an acute bout of tetanus was unexpected, but it was disconcerting to find that many of the reported cases of tetanus were in "fully vaccinated" people. A review of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the CDC called "Tetanus Surveillance -- United States, 1995 -- 1997" [2] revealed unexpected information and facts.
However, because this report is bogged down with complicated statistics that must be methodically disentangled, it is no wonder that few are aware of its contents.
The document discusses 124 cases of tetanus reported between 1995 and 1997. Here is what was reported: [3]
TABLE 1. Tetanus toxoid vaccination status and deaths among persons with reported tetanus, by vaccination status
-- -- United States, 1995 -- 1997
Vaccination Status No. (%) No. Deaths
Unknown 66 53.7 9
0 Doses 27 21.5 4
1 Dose 11 9.1 0
2 Doses 4 3.3 1
3 Doses 4 3.3 0
>= 4 Doses 12 9.1 0
Total 124* (100.0) 14
*Outcome was unknown for two patients.
Note that nearly twenty -- five percent (24.8%) of those who contracted acute tetanus had at least one dose of the vaccine and more than twelve percent (12.4%) of the patients were fully vaccinated, with three or more doses of tetanus. Of the 66 (53.7%) people who had an "unknown vaccination status," it could reasonably be assumed that a portion of those had had one or more tetanus shots at some point in their lives.
Therefore, statement made by the CDC that "the disease continues to occur almost exclusively among persons who are unvaccinated, inadequately vaccinated or whose vaccination histories are unknown or uncertain"[4] is simply not true.
The "rationale" for getting a tetanus shot is that milder cases will result among the vaccinated.[5] This is an argument used with all the mandated the vaccines Yet, given that the fatality rate (11.2%) is lower than reported and the apparently low incidence overall, the following questions should be asked:
1) What is the real risk of getting a severe case of tetanus if you are unvaccinated?
2) How many cases of serious tetanus would occur were all wounds cared for properly?
3) What antibody level actually confers protection from a serious case of tetanus?
The truth is, the antibody level required to be universally protective is unknown. The "generally accepted" protective level for tetanus antibody > 0.15 IU/mL. This level was proposed by Snead in 1937, and has been the accepted "standard" since that time.
However, the number is arbitrary and not guaranteed to protect from infection.[6] Therefore, routinely vaccinating every 10 years, as the journal article suggests, simply to maintain "adequate antibody levels" is uncalled for and may not only provide the person with a false sense of security, it may actually cause harm.
Tetanus vaccines haven't gotten the "bad press" many of the other vaccines have recently received. In the zeal to protect from this "deadly disease," it is imagined that the risk of infection far exceeds the potential risk of the vaccine.
What harm could it do?
I thought the vaccine only contained inactivated tetanus toxin and sterile water. I am convinced that is the perception of nearly all physicians. It was disturbing to learn of the other ingredients that are in the tetanus toxoid vaccine: formaldehyde; sodium phosphate monobasic; sodium phophate dibasic, [an eye and skin irritant that may be harmful if ingested]; glycine, aluminum, and 25 ug. of thimerosal (mercury).
There is obviously more to the tetanus vaccine than inactivated toxoid!
In the Emergency Department, if the tetanus status of a patient is "unknown," an additional shot is routinely given, because it is thought to be harmless. However, this is simply bad medicine. If the person doesn't need the tetanus booster, the vaccine can cause a severe allergic reaction referred to as an Arthus type, Type III hypersensitivity reaction.
This side effect is defined as "an acute inflammatory reaction caused by deposition of antigen -- antibody complexes into the tissues."
The "Arthus type" variation classically causes a reaction only at the injection site, but the result is an acute necrotizing vasculitis and localized necrosis (death) of the tissues.[7] The reaction starts 2 -- 8 hours after a tetanus toxiod injection and occurs if the person has very high serum antitoxin antibodies due to overly frequent injections.[8]
In addition to the local reaction, severe systemic reactions can occur. A partial list of adverse events includes headache; nausea; vomiting; arthralgias; tachycardia; syncope (fainting); cranial nerve paralysis; and a variety of neurological complications including EEG disturbances, seizures and encephalopathy; anaphylaxis and Gullian -- Barre' syndrome.[9]
Recommending "routine" tetanus boosters based on mathematical models of antibody degradation can result in severe complications and is risky business, indeed. [/quote]
[quote author=_http://www.vaclib.org/links/tetanusindex.htm]Source: _http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00053713.htm
Keep in mind that the tetanus vaccine became available for widespread civilian use in the late 1940's. Thus tetanus mortality had declined from 205 deaths per 100,000 wounds in the American Civil War (1860) to about .4 deaths per 100,000 population in 1947 at the beginning of widespread civilian use of the vaccine. This means that sanitation, nutrition, year around nutritional improvements, general hygiene, and wound hygiene had reduced the mortality and incidence of tetanus by as much as 99.8 percent before the widespread use of tetanus vaccine. Improvements in the above factors would continue to play a major role [if not the sole role] in further reduction of tetanus.
Could tetanus vaccine have played any role what so ever in the last fraction of a percent in tetanus reduction?
NO! In a sanitary society with adequate nutrition, natural immunity to the bacteria gives almost everybody immunity against the bacteria's ability to grow in a healthy body.
It is a far different matter where the conditions prevail which encourage the tetanus bacteria's growth. Nobody can be immune to dirty wounds. Immunity to dirty wounds can not come from vaccination; immunity to dirty wounds can not come from having had tetanus one or more times and recovering.
The vaccine's "active" ingredient is the poison which is made by the bacteria. Antibodies against poison do not constitute an immunization. [/quote]
