• Ranvier
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    9 months ago

    In 2015, there were 34,000 newborns who died of neonatal tetanus as estimated by the WHO. This number is actually a 96% reduction from the amount that died in 1988 after many programs to help improve vaccine access. The tetanus vaccine induces antibodies in a mother which help protect the infant after birth.

    Tetanus, without an anti toxin (a form of passive vaccination) and other extensive medical interventions in an intensive care unit, approaches a 100% fatality rate. Treatment includes the active vaccination as well.

    Vaccines are a victim of their own success. We’ve had tetanus vaccines since 1924, and the people privileged enough to have had them for multiple generations don’t appreciate what it would be without them. Clostridium tetani is not rare, and is widespread across the entire world in dirt. The disease tetanus is rare only because of widespread access to vaccines.

    Get your tetanus shots people.

    https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-WER9206