Years ago, before I was in college and still full of life, my friends and I decided to go on an adventure. Our adventure really wasn’t as extravagant as the word may lead you to think, in all actuality, we were just exploring an old, abandoned middle school in the middle of no where at midnight. Sounds smart right? So while on this extravagant adventure, we had to climb over a very old and rusty fence. Once we made it into the school we were pretty let down to find out that it in fact was not haunted and just contained a bunch of vulgar graffiti written on the walls. That was until we were met with a scare! Not from a ghost, but from a bat that was chilling in the corner of the building. My friends and I took off, with me leading the pack. I was so scared that the bat was going to chase me that I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was running and WHAM I ran right into the old, rusty fence and had a huge scratch on my leg.
Now, when this happened, and my friends saw the scratch on my leg, they immediately started to ask me if I had my Tetanus shot. I had no idea and I began to freak out thinking that I was about to become infected with a disease that I knew nothing about. One big common misconception about acquiring Tetanus is that it is caused by the rust of whatever broke your skin. This is not true. It is caused by Clostridium Tetani, a endospore toxin that is produced by bacteria. According to the Mayo Clinic, this toxin is often found in the soil and dust. This is why Tetanus is often associated with rust. It’s endospores are located in the soil, and in outdoor conditions, soil is everywhere. In order for the toxin to infect someone, it must enter through a flesh wound. Just because it’s endospores are everywhere, does not necessarily mean you will get infected. Just try to avoid any type of wound altogether.
Most people who get infected with Tetanus are those who are not vaccinated. The vaccination process for this specific disease has a lot of components to it which is discussed in this article released by the CDC. The vaccination for Tetanus is often given in tandem with vaccination against diphtheria and pertussis and is known as DTap. Vaccines for these diseases are recommended for everybody. When you are a baby, it is recommended that you get 3 shots of the DTap vaccine in order to build up high levels of protection within your immune system. You get these shots at 2 months, 4 months and 6 months. Following these initial 3 shots, young children get two booster shots of Tdap to ensure that same protection is maintained throughout childhood. It’s recommended that preteens get one booster shot of Tdap around the ages of 11 and 12. After that, adults should get a shot every 10 years. It’s a lot of shots that you have to keep up with, but as always, vaccinations are very important, and they could save your life one day!
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