How to find tetanus statistics...

[Pariah]

My mother went to the doctor twice in the past week for a foot injury, and of course they pushed vaxes. She declined everything, but they were especially pushy with tetanus, saying that someone died of it here recently.

Being the lovely daughter that I am I decided to look up some statistics. My mom knows they were lying, but I'd love to find actual numbers...maybe she could print it out and send it to them. On our state's department of health website, they give numbers for diseases and related deaths, and tetanus isn't listed on any list or chart so far that I've found, for any year.

This is where I've been looking...

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemio...sease_List.htm
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemio...rveillance.htm

...and I'm not finding anything, even something that says there haven't been cases here. Am I looking in the wrong place?

[Ophelia]

I looked here at the latest report available for Sept 2008:

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemio...D/cumsep08.pdf

Nothing. There are other VAD's on there, but no tetanus. So unless it happened in October 2008...it should be on there.

Was her foot injury a crushing one or puncture wound? If not, they don't even have any business advocating a tetanus shot. Of course, you probably already know that

I also looked here at the CDC MMWR:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5742md.htm

But there doesn't appear to be any tetanus listed at all...which is odd. Normally there are 30-40 per year, you'd think there would be SOME on there

[Pariah]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

Was her foot injury a crushing one or puncture wound? If not, they don't even have any business advocating a tetanus shot. Of course, you probably already know that

No, not at all...actually, "injury" probably isn't the best word for it. She had a fungus on her nail, then her nail started to come off, so she wanted to have it checked out. Yesterday was her second appointment with this doctor, and he was like, "Well...are you SURE you didn't hit it on something?" for the millionth time. My mom asked if it was infected and if it could spread to the rest of her body, and he was like, "Well...I guess it might be able to..." then suggested she see a podiatrist. Really helpful, right?

It has been getting better since I had her put raw organic honey on it. She's only done it once and it improved a lot, so I'm trying to get her to do it more...

[traycanadian]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5742md.htm

But there doesn't appear to be any tetanus listed at all...which is odd. Normally there are 30-40 per year, you'd think there would be SOME on there

Scroll down to Table 1 and find Tetanus listed alphabetically. There are 9 cases in the US to date.

[Ophelia]

Ah, thanks. The print is so tiny I missed it. I wish they would list tetanus on Table IL, they list other VAD's out by state but not tetanus. How annoying. Or am I missing that too?
That would answer Pariah's question, if they listed it out by state.

[QueenOfThePride]

Essential oils are great for nail infections.

[Pariah]

Originally Posted by QueenOfThePride

Essential oils are great for nail infections.

She's tried TTO already...is there anything else that may help?

Thanks for all the replies!

[QueenOfThePride]

There are a whole bunch that are anti-fungal. Peppermint and the citrus oils come to mind. You have to apply them a few times a day for probably a long time. The infected nail has to fully grow out.