two tetanus questions

[kfillmore]

1.
Anyone been able to get the tetanus vax alone? (not part of D and
P)

2.
I live in hawaii. my sister was here and was badly cut on the reef while surfing. The Hospital gave her a tetanus shot (booster). Now I am concerned because DD walks (and sits and runs) around on the beach. The beach is littered with coral, some sharp. Any thoughts?

[mamakay]

1) It exists:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Biologi.../UCM142732.pdf

But it might be hard to actually find.

2) I don't think there will be a lot of tetanus at the beach, but here's the deal: If your DD gets a cut that requires stitches, they're going to make her get (like, probably bring CPS in if you object) either the vax or the IG (and I think the IG is riskier than the vax, personally.) So that's something to consider.

[lioralourie]

here's 2 more thoughts.

1) Tetanus bacteria is all around us, all the time. And none of us probalby has known anyone to die of tetanus, or even come down with it.

2) If antibody immunity to Tetanus cannot be gotten naturally, by having been exposed before (we all are, all the time) then how is an injected form supposed to give immunity?

hmmm.

Liora in Beijing.

[lioralourie]

As long as a wound bleeds out enough to oxygenate the area, the risk of tetanus is no longer an issue. Hydrogen Peroxide, on/in low-bleeding wounds accomplishes the same thing. Tetanus is anerobic bacteria, and cannot live or multiply in oxygenated environment such as blood (even venous I believe has too much Oxygen for replication...).

It's deep stab wounds, deeper tissue puncture wounds, and multiple crush fracture type injuries where tetanus can get in there and multiply.

one more thing: Debriding the wound, Hilary Butler says, is actually a bad thing, because all those (localized) tetanus microrganisms which are being fought and perhaps contained on local level...debridement unleashes them throughout the body and LEADS to clinical Tetanus symptoms.

[lioralourie]

Tetanus thrives in soil, not so much the top layer which gets some oxyen, but the underneath layers.

My immediate thought is that a sandy area, with salt water, and constant turnover of toplayers of sand, is a rather LOW tetanus environment.

[JMJ]

I have only heard of the Tetanus only vaccine coming in large vials that contain a lot of mercury, so personally, I would get the DT or give it to my child long before I would seek out the high mercury TT vaccine.

My great-uncle died of tetanus before the vaccine was available. I don't know anything about his injury. He was a child. Apparently, it all happened within a day or 2. With modern medicine, they may have been able to save him, but I still don't think that tetanus is a disease that you really want to get. It may be rare, but it does exist.

Any wound that bleeds a lot will not give a person tetanus. If the hospital had been worried about tetanus in your sister, her treatment would have been more aggressive. The tetanus shot would have been too late.

If there are rusty nails on the beach or if your daughter is likely to be exposed to something that could cause a deep puncture wound that would not bleed there or elsewhere, you might want to consider getting her a vaccine that includes Tetanus.