Tetanus

As well consult a butcher on the value of vegetarianism as a doctor on the worth of vaccination.
George Bernard Shaw
20-08-2017 20:01
  1. Unlike papilloma or whooping cough, tetanus is a really dangerous disease. Many parents, who refuse other vaccinations, still consider it necessary to vaccinate against tetanus. But what is the probability of contracting tetanus? Is it more dangerous than the vaccine? And, does the vaccine protect against tetanus?

  2. CDC Pinkbook

    Tetanus is caused by the Clostridium tetani bacteria. The spores of this bacteria are everywhere. They are in soil, in animal intestines (especially herbivores), in human intestines, in dust, on clothing, on the body and even in saliva.
    This bacteria does not multiply in an aerobic environment. Once it gets into anaerobic environment, however, it comes to life and begins to release a very strong toxin (tetanospasmin). If, due to injury, this toxin enters the nervous system, it causes muscle spasms and can lead to paralysis. In developed countries, about 11% of the disease cases are fatal. Not all strains of the bacteria release the toxin.

  3. Tetanus vaccine is almost always combined with diphtheria and whooping cough vaccine (DTaP/DTP), but it is also usually combined with poliomyelitis, Hib and sometimes with hepatitis B.
    In fact, there is a monovalent vaccine against tetanus, but it contains ethylmercury, which is why it is only intended for the third world countries.
    There is a vaccine against tetanus and diphtheria, but without whooping cough (DT for children and Td for adults).
    Theoretically, tetanus vaccine without aluminum does exist. In practice, of course, it's not manufactured.

  4. If tetanus toxin is treated with formalin, then it gets converted to toxoid, which is no longer toxic. It is used as a vaccine.
    In case of injury the vaccine is useless, since the production of antibodies is a process, which takes from several days to several weeks. In this case, immunoglobulin (i.e. the antibodies themselves) injections are given.
    Immunoglobulin (TIG) is isolated from the blood of repeatedly vaccinated horses or people. Upon visiting a doctor with an injury they will usually try to give the patient a tetanus vaccine. The vaccine, however, is useless after getting infected, and the immunoglobulin is only given in case of a very serious injury.

  5. Tetanus: a review of the literature. 2001, Cook, Br J Anaesth

    It is believed that there is no possibility of natural immunity against tetanus, and that even previous illness does not provide immunity from future infections. Vaccination is considered to be the only means of protection against tetanus.
    In developed countries, 70% of tetanus cases and 80% of deaths are among people over the age of 50.
    Mortality from tetanus in people under 30 years of age is almost zero, whereas among the elderly, the mortality rate is 52%.

  6. Natural immunity

  7. Naturally Acquired Immunity to Tetanus Toxin in an Isolated Community. 1985, Matzkin, Infect Immun

    There is a complete medical consensus on that natural immunity against tetanus is impossible, and only a vaccine can prevent the disease.
    The authors ran blood tests of two hundred randomly selected immigrants from Ethiopia to Israel and found tetanus antibodies in 98% of them. 30% of them had the level of antibodies that is considered protective (above 0.01 UI/ml). None of them have been vaccinated.
    The amount of antibodies increased with age. The authors concluded that natural immunity is produced from continuous contact with the bacteria.

  8. Tetanus immunity in kibbutz women. 1989, Leshem, Isr J Med Sci

    Researchers ran blood tests of 120 randomly selected women living in Israeli kibbutzim. All of them had sufficient levels of antibodies against tetanus toxin, despite the fact that 12.5% of them had never been vaccinated.
    Many of them were not fully vaccinated (from 6% among the young to 68% among the elderly).

  9. Naturally acquired antibodies to tetanus toxin in humans and animals from the Galápagos islands. 1983, Veronesi, J Infect Dis.

    The level of tetanus antibodies of 57 tested residents of Galapagos Islands was above the protective level. None of them had been vaccinated. Two of them have had tetanus in the past. This contradicts the accepted dogma that having had the disease does not give immunity.
    They also checked nine animals (horses, cows, donkeys and a dog) and all of them had sufficient levels of antibodies.
    The authors believe that immunity is produced by swallowing bacterial spores that multiply in the intestines. While the skin wounds act like booster vaccines.
    It is reported here that most of the 59 unvaccinated people had protective levels of antibodies.
    It is reported here that 80% of the 410 of unvaccinated Indians had antibodies in their blood.
    The occurrence of natural immunity in 20 out of 48 children and adults in Mali is reported here.
    It is reported here that out of 166 unvaccinated people only two did not have antibodies.

  10. The tetanus bacillus as an intestinal saprophyte in man. 1922, Tenbroeck, J Exp Med

    The answer to the question, how natural immunity is produced was already given back in the 20s of last century. Tetanus bacteria were found in the intestines of 35% of the 78 men tested in Beijing. Tetanus was a very rare disease in China in early 20th century (not counting the neonatal tetanus).
    Researchers found tetanus bacteria in the patients’ stool even after they spent three months in the hospital on a virtually sterile diet. This can lead to a conclusion that tetanus bacteria multiply in the intestines.

  11. Studies on the relation of tetanus bacilli in the digestive tract to tetanus antitoxin in the blood. 1923, Tenbroeck, J Exp Med

    Continuing with the previous article. 26 people who had tetanus bacteria in their stool had antibodies in their blood.
    Among the 30 people who did not have bacteria in their stool, 28 did not have tetanus antibodies either. The authors proved that tetanus bacteria multiply in human intestines. They also explained why despite the fact that a third of population have tetanus bacteria living in their intestines, they get sick with it very rarely, even after surgeries.
    To check for the production of tetanus antibodies through their ingestion with food, one of the authors of the study swallowed a large number of bacteria (there were real scientists once!). The experiment had to be stopped, however, as he got constipation (it is unclear whether it was due to the ingestion of bacteria). The experiment on a monkey was more successful.

  12. The immunity produced by the growth of tetanus bacilli in the digestive tract. 1926, Tenbroeck, J Exp Med

    Guinea pigs that were fed tetanus bacteria developed antibodies in six months. There are many strains of tetanus bacteria, however, and the antibodies were produced only for the strain, which was fed to them. They did not get immunity from other strains. Those who were fed with several strains, developed immunity to all the strains.
    In one of the experiments the authors infected the guinea pigs with tetanus and all but two of them died. It turned out, that those two pigs were accidentally placed with a male and both of them were pregnant. How did the pregnancy save them from tetanus remains unclear. They gave birth to healthy babies.
    In addition, the authors report that it is widely known that the bacteria spores themselves are not enough to get infected (!). In order for the infection to occur some other irritating factor is needed. They used different materials as an irritant (a glass vial, among others). A vial filled with tetanus bacteria spores was inserted under the skin of guinea pigs and smashed. The fact that bacteria spores themselves are insufficient for infection also explains the fact that despite the prevalence of the bacteria, disease cases are extremely rare.
    There is no connection between the amount of antibodies in the blood and immunity to tetanus. The authors conclude that the toxin antibodies play only a small role in the tetanus immunity, and that there is something else that protects against infection. They assume it is the agglutinins. These agglutinins are specific – each bacteria strain has its own agglutinin.

  13. Study of tetanus agglutinins and antitoxin in human serums. 1926, Coleman, J Infect Dis

    The researchers ran blood tests of 104 California residents. Agglutinins to several strains of tetanus bacteria were found in the blood of 80% of them, but they did not have antibodies. The authors believe that tetanus bacteria were in the intestines of these people in the past, but did not survive there and thus they do not have the antibodies.
    Tetanus agglutinins have not been researched since then.

  14. Human intestinal carriers of tetanus spores in California. 1926, Bauer, JSTOR

    In four years from 1922 to 1925 in California, 245 cases of tetanus have been recorded. Mortality rate was 67%.
    Among the 530 people in the study, the authors found bacteria in the intestines of 24%. They believe that the presence of tetanus bacteria in the intestines depends on the microflora, since they have always seen other types of bacteria along with tetanus bacteria, and did not see other bacteria, when the tetanus bacteria were absent.

  15. Does the tetanus vaccine protect against tetanus?

  16. Severe tetanus in immunized patients with high anti-tetanus titers. 1992, Crone, Neurology

    Three people got sick with tetanus, one of them died. All three of them were not only fully vaccinated, but also had very high levels of antibodies. One of them had the antibodies level 2500 times higher than the protective level (0.01 IU/ml). This patient was hyper-immunized for creating commercial immunoglobulin. That is, he was given many vaccines in order to create high level of antibodies, which would then be isolated from his blood and sold as immunoglobulin.
    The other patient had 0.2 in vitro level of antibodies, but when he was tested in vivo on mice, it turned out to be less than 0.01 IU/ml. The authors conclude that having immunity to toxoid is not at all equal to having immunity to toxin.

  17. Tetanus of immunized children. 1993, Luisto, Dev Med Child Neurol

    In 17 years from 1969 to 1985 in Finland, 106 cases of tetanus have been recorded. Five of them were children under 18 years of age. Four children have been fully vaccinated. Whether the fifth child has been vaccinated is unknown.
    The last case of neonatal tetanus in Finland was recorded in 1915, and vaccination started in 1957.

  18. A systematic review of tetanus in individuals with previous tetanus toxoid immunization. 2014, Hopkins, Canada Communicable Disease Report CCDR

    A systematic review of cases of infection with tetanus in vaccinated. The authors analyzed 51 articles, which reported 359 such cases from 1946 to 2013.
    Here, a case of tetanus in a patient with antibodies level 278 higher that the protective level is reported; here – a case with the level of antibodies 16 times higher than the protective; and here – a case of infection with the level of antibodies 100 times higher than the protective level.

  19. The ‘protective’ level of antibodies (0.01 IU/ml) was determined in 1937 on the basis of experiments on guinea pigs, and was extrapolated to humans. In recent years, in some countries, the protective has already been considered as 0.1 IU/ml, and sometimes even 0.15 IU/ml.

  20. A population-based serologic survey of immunity to tetanus in the United States. 1995, Gergen, N Engl J Med

    70% of Americans had protective levels of tetanus antibodies (0.15 IU/ml). The children had protective levels higher than 80%, but much lower than the vaccination coverage (96%). Less than 5% of parents refused vaccination, meaning that refusing vaccination is not a significant factor for the absence of antibodies in the USA.
    It is reported here that in tetanus vaccinated animals, TTC (non-toxic fragment of tetanus toxin) reached the brain in the same amount as in the unvaccinated animals.

  21. Neonatal tetanus

  22. One of the types of tetanus in neonatal tetanus. It barely occurs in developed countries. Its cause is the infection of the baby through the umbilical cord, upon non-sterile cutting.
    Instead of raising the level of hygiene during childbirth, handing out hydrogen peroxide to pregnant women and teaching them not to cut the umbilical cord with rusted scissors, WHO, of course, chose a different strategy – mass vaccination of pregnant women in third world countries.

  23. Neonatal tetanus anti-immunization and protective antitoxin antibody. 1995, de Moraes-Pinto, J Infect Dis

    20 babies got admitted into a hospital in Nigeria with neonatal tetanus. Mothers of six of them have been vaccinated with at least two doses of the vaccine during pregnancy. All mothers and babies, including the unvaccinated ones, had the antibodies at a much higher than the protective level (0.07 IU/ml and above). Mortality rate among unvaccinated was 43%. Mortality rate among vaccinated was 50%.
    However, there also exists a study proving that 2-3 vaccines during pregnancy significantly reduce the incidence of neonatal tetanus. On the other hand, vaccination increased mortality from other causes by 18%.

  24. Neonatal tetanus despite protective serum antitoxin concentration. 1991, Maselle, FEMS Microbiol Immunol.

    10 newborns with tetanus in Tanzania. Mothers of all but one have been vaccinated during pregnancy. The level of antibodies of nine of them was above the protective level. The mother of the tenth baby was vaccinated two weeks before giving birth.
    Two babies had antibodies levels 100 and 400 times higher than the protective level. The mother of one of them received 14 vaccines during five of her pregnancies; the other mother received six vaccines in the last three years. The baby whose mother was not vaccinated had the level of antibodies three times above the protective level.
    The authors conclude that there is no such thing as ‘protective level of antibodies.’

  25. Ways of infection

  26. Post-Hysterectomy and Puerperal Tetanus. 1937, Pulvertaft, BMJ

    One of the ways of infection with tetanus was smallpox vaccination. [1], [2]. Also, tetanus was caused by circumcision, medical bandages, sanitary pads, abortion and removal of the uterus. A case of tetanus infection due to rapture of the foreskin during intercourse was reported, which means that tetanus bacteria probably also live in vagina.
    The authors analyzed 14 types of sanitary pads and found tetanus spores and C. welchii spores (more about them later) on all of them. Some of the pads were claimed to be sterile by the manufacturer.
    Tetanus bacteria were also found on sterile sets of hygienic bandages and pads intended for childbirth.
    The authors conclude that such non-sterile pads should not be used after childbirth and uterus removal, since 3.5% of cases of tetanus are postpartum tetanus.
    They also say that the state regulates a can of sardines more than the pads that are used during childbirth, and that aborigines, who do not use pads, are safer than their civilized sisters.

  27. The abovementioned C. welchii, which today is already called C. perfringens is a bacterium of the same family as tetanus. It is also anaerobic, lives in soil, in human and animal intestines, in dust, and is as common as C. tetani. However, since there is no vaccine against this bacterium, you probably have not heard anything about it. This is a bit strange, since it causes a far more dangerous and more common disease – gas gangrene. Upon getting into anaerobic environment through a deep wound, this bacterium begins to release a toxin, which quickly leads to tissue necrosis, which ends, at best, with amputation. Unlike tetanus, for which anti-tetanus serum is effective in case of injury, gas gangrene serum does not work.
    1,000 people get sick with gas gangrene in the USA each year. Mortality rate is 20-25%.
    How many people get sick with tetanus? 30 people per year. Only three of them die. And while if a person survives tetanus, their nervous tissue is restored, and they get fully cured, then after surviving gas gangrene, the person remains disabled, at best.

  28. C. difficile bacterium also belongs to the same family. You did not hear anything about it either, and you did not vaccinate against it, even though it is associated with almost 30,000 deaths a year in the USA, meaning that it is ten thousand times more deadly than tetanus.
    But maybe the mortality rate for tetanus is so low due to vaccination? In 1950, before the mass vaccination began, only 500 people a year got sick with tetanus, 300 of them died.

  29. Who gets tetanus?

  30. From 1987 to 2008, 13% of tetanus cases and 29% of tetanus deaths occurred in people sick with diabetes. Diabetics suffer from tetanus three times more often than the rest, and die four times more often. 15% of tetanus cases occur in intravenous drug users.
    Even if one were to assume that tetanus antibodies effectively neutralize the toxin, they would still need to get to the place of injury. And if the injury were to occur in a place with no sufficient blood supply, antibodies would not be able to get there. This is why diabetics suffer from tetanus much more often.

  31. Tetanus Despite Preexisting Antitetanus Antibody. 1978, Berger, JAMA

    Since 1955, 90% of tetanus cases in New York were heroin addicts. Same in Chicago.
    A case of brother and sister who got tetanus from heroin is described here. The brother had a severe form of tetanus and the sister had a mild one. They both recovered – the brother in three weeks and the sister in two weeks. Since the sister received the vaccine 15 years ago, the authors concluded that was the reason she got the mild form. They also concluded that the brother was most likely never vaccinated, and that is why he got severe tetanus, although his antibodies level was never tested, and if he was ever vaccinated remained unclear.

  32. Tetanus: A rare and preventable cause of death among drug users and the elderly. 1996, Sangalli, Eur J Epidemiol

    From 1984 to 1994, 40 people died of tetanus in the Lazio region in Italy (population of 5.1 million). 48% of them were elderly people, and among the younger ones, mostly intravenous drug users died. In the age group of under 30 years old, no death were recorded. Among those who were not drug users, only one person under the age of 40 died, and two more people under the age of 50. The risk of death in elderly people was 27 times higher, in farmers – 167 times higher, and in drug users – 186 times higher.

  33. Tetanus in Injecting Drug Users, United Kingdom. 2006, Hahné, Emerg Infect Dis

    Until 2003, tetanus was a rare disease in Great Britain, and mostly happened among the elderly. After 2003, drug users began to get infected with tetanus. In 2003, there were 35 cases of tetanus, and two of them died. The authors researched for common factors and found out that they got sick from infected heroin from Liverpool. The authors urge the doctors and prison staff to vaccinate drug users.

  34. Tetanus in Injecting Drug Users. 2005, Beeching, BMJ

    Cases of tetanus in drug users were already described in Victorian era. They injected morphine under the skin then.
    In Chicago, in the ‘50s, before the vaccination began, most patients were heroin addicts. Out of the 22 cases of tetanus, 12 were drug users, and they all died. Only four of the rest died. CDC reports that 55% of tetanus cases in California were intravenous drug users.
    It is reported here that five out of five tetanus patients in three years in Saudi Arabia, were heroin addicts.

  35. Tetanus in the United States Army in World War II. 1947, N Engl J Med

    Randomized controlled study of the tetanus vaccine effectiveness was never conducted. Then how was it determined that the vaccine is effective?
    During the First World War, 70 cases of tetanus were observed among the American soldiers (13.4 per 100,000 injuries). During the Second World War, when all soldiers got vaccinated, 12 cases of tetanus were observed (0.44 per 100,000 injuries).
    In addition, 80 cases of tetanus were observed in German soldiers, who did not get vaccinated. However, among the Luftwaffe (Air Force) soldiers, who got vaccinated, no cases of tetanus were reported.
    On the basis of this information, it was concluded that the vaccine is very effective, and starting in 1947 it was given to civilian population.
    The fact that the WWI was fought mainly on horses, while the WWII was fought on tanks, did not seem to bother the researchers. Neither were they bothered by the fact, that Luftwaffe fought in the air, while the tetanus bacteria lives mainly in the soil.
    However, the gas gangrene took lives of 100,000 German soldiers (10-12% of all wounded) during the WWI. During the WWII, 0.3-1.5% died of it, and during the Vietnam War – only 0.016% died. From 1950s to 1980s the mortality rate of gas gangrene decreased from 70% to 41%. And all this without any vaccinations.

  36. Let’s take a little break from tetanus.

  37. A vaccine that will reduce pregnancy in women. 1994, Talwar, PNAS

    hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) is a hormone, which is released during pregnancy, and which the home pregnancy test is based on.
    Since this hormone is absolutely necessary for the development of pregnancy, scientists came up with a brilliant idea. They thought that if they could trigger an autoimmune reaction to this hormone, the immune system would begin to see it as a pathogen and destroy it. And that would make a vaccine against pregnancy.
    How to trigger an immune response to a hormone? Simply by adding aluminum and tetanus toxoid to it. The immune system will now produce antibodies to hCG, in addition to the tetanus antibodies. Said and done. They started with this back in the ‘70s, but it did not work. And in the early ‘90s, another adjuvant was added to the vaccine – sheep lutropin (the hormone responsible for the ovulation) and diphtheria toxoid, and the vaccine started to work! Of course, the level of antibodies was constantly decreasing, so the vaccine had to be injected once every few months, but the Hindu women, on whom the vaccine was tested, almost never got pregnant. Although, some researchers accuse the author of this experiment of skipping the preliminary animal testing, and doing the testing on women right away. And Maneka Gandhi, the former Minister of the Environment of India, claims that his contraceptive vaccine for male dogs killed too many of them.
    Similar vaccines were also being developed under the guidance of WHO by other research groups (page 18).

  38. Tetanus vaccine may be laced with anti-fertility drug. International/developing countries. 1995, Vaccine Wkly

    (full text)
    In the fall of 1994, the World Health Organization held a tetanus vaccination campaign in Mexico. For some reason, however, the vaccine was given exclusively to women of reproductive age (15-45 y.o.). And despite the fact, that one dose of tetanus vaccine gives protection for 10 years, the women were vaccinated five times. A Catholic organization, Human Life International, found it strange and decided to check these vaccines for hCG, and indeed, it turned out the vaccine contained it. Similar tetanus vaccines, containing hCG, were found in the Philippines, where 3.4 million women were vaccinated, and in Nicaragua, where only women aged 12-49 were vaccinated.

  39. In 2014, WHO and UNICEF held a vaccination campaign for women of childbearing age (14-49 y.o.) in Kenya. Women received five doses of the vaccine. The Church usually carries out vaccination in Kenya, but this time the WHO carried out the vaccinations itself. The Organization of Catholic Bishops in Kenya found it strange and decided to send that vaccine for testing into four different labs. According to the Bishops’ statement, all labs found hCG in the tested vials.
    WHO and UNICEF explained the vaccination of women of childbearing age by the fact that the vaccines were intended to prevent neonatal tetanus. However, according to the WHO statistics, in five years prior to this campaign, only 19 cases of neonatal tetanus have been recorded in Kenya (population of Kenya is 46 million people). The need for five doses of the vaccine (instead of the regular one or two) was never explained.
    One of the labs stated, that they had no knowledge that what they were testing was a vaccine. Had they known, they certainly would not have found hCG there. Another lab's license was revoked after it refused to falsify the results.

  40. HCG Found in WHO Tetanus Vaccine in Kenya Raises Concern in the Developing World. 2017, Oller, OAlib

    - WHO has been working on development of pregnancy vaccine since 1970s.
    - WHO has been working on the issue of reducing birth rates in third world countries since 1945.
    - The US government has been officially supporting the decline in birth rates in third world countries since 1970s.
    - The vaccination protocol used in Kenya (5 doses every six months) completely coincided with the pregnancy vaccination protocol, and did not coincide with the tetanus vaccination protocol.
    - Vaccines in Kenya were guarded by the police. Each vial had to be returned to WHO under the police supervision. All vaccines were kept in a hotel in Nairobi, and distributed only from there.
    - Half of the vials provided by WHO for testing contained hCG.
    - Women vaccinated against tetanus in the Philippines had hCG antibodies.
    The authors believe that WHO is responsible for depopulation in Kenya.

  41. Safety

  42. Adverse events associated with childhood vaccines other than pertussis and rubella. 1994, Stratton, JAMA

    An IOM report, in which, among other things, is stated that they have found a causal relationship between tetanus/diphtheria vaccine and Guillain-Barré syndrome, anaphylactic shock and brachial neuritis.

  43. Abnormal T-lymphocyte subpopulations in healthy subjects after tetanus booster immunization. 1984, Eibl, N Engl J Med

    Tetanus booster vaccine temporarily lowers the level of T-lymphocytes in the blood to a level that is observed in AIDS patients (CD4/CD8 ration = 1).

  44. Since tetanus vaccines are given at every opportunity, it leads to hyper-immunization (the level of antibodies above 5IU/ml). In Italy, among those born before 1968, 11% were hyper-immunized. Among those born after 1968, there were already 17%.
    In 53% of adults in Finland (over 50 years of age) the level of antibodies was above 1IU/ml. The number of side effects from the vaccine has doubled in a decade. The authors recommend getting booster vaccines once every 20 years, not 10.

  45. Is there a causative role for tetanus toxoid vaccination in the development of allergy-like symptoms and in the increasing prevalence of atopic diseases? 2004, Mari, Med Hypotheses

    If some vaccine component is similar to a protein produced by the body itself, then once the immune system learns how to react to the vaccine protein, it may also learn to react to its own protein (the one similar to the vaccine protein) in the same way. This is how one gets autoimmune disease. This phenomenon is called molecular mimicry.
    This article explains the mechanism of molecular mimicry between tetanus toxoid and IgE receptor, which is probably what leads to an increased risk of allergies in vaccinated people.

  46. Vaccine model of antiphospholipid syndrome induced by tetanus vaccine. 2012, Dimitrijevic, Lupus

    Hyper-immunization of mice against tetanus causes antiphospholipid syndrom. This is also a result of molecular mimicry.
    It seems that in humans, tetanus, hepatitis B and influenza vaccines also cause this disease.[1], [2]
    It is reported here that the tetanus vaccine can lead to autoimmune diseases.

  47. According to VAERS, 24 deaths and 176 cases of disability were recorded in the period from 2001 to 2008 in the USA after tetanus vaccination (without the whooping cough component). (These numbers should be multiplied by 10 at the least, and it should be remembered that these vaccines are quite rare, and most children get a combination vaccine with whopping cough).
    During these 8 years only 233 cases and 26 deaths from tetanus have been reported.
    Among those cases, 27% were vaccinated more than 4 times and 40% were not vaccinated. 15% were intravenous drug users, 15% were diabetes patients, and 49% were over 50 years old.
    Not a single tetanus case in children under the age of 5 was reported. No one under the age of 30 died from tetanus. It is reported here that from 1992 to 2000, 15 cases of tetanus in children under the age of 15 were recorded. No one died, although most of them were unvaccinated.

  48. Frequent failure of adolescent booster responses to tetanus toxoid despite infant immunization: Waning of infancy-induced immune memory? 2010, Posfay-Barbe, Vaccine

    Booster vaccines are less effective for those who got their tetanus vaccine during infancy, as compared to those who got vaccinated later in life.

  49. Treatment

  50. Magnesium as first line therapy in the management of tetanus: a prospective study of 40 patients. 2002, Attygalle, Anaesthesia

    Intravenous injections of magnesium help treat tetanus. More on magnesium in the treatment of tetanus: [1] [2] [3]

  51. Inactivation of Tetanus Toxin by Crystalline Vitamin C. 1937, Jungeblut, J Immunol

    Vitamin C inactivates tetanospasmin in vitro, but not in vivo, in guinea pigs.

  52. Efficacy of Vitamin C in Counteracting Tetanus Toxin Toxicity. 1966, Dey, Naturwissenschaften

    30 rats were divided into five groups.
    The first group received two minimal lethal doses of tetanus toxin. All rats died.
    The second group received a vitamin C injection (1g/kg) together with the toxin injection, and additional injections twice a day. All rats survived. Mild symptoms of tetanus were observed.
    The third group got three injections of the vitamin first, and then a toxin with an additional vitamin injection. All rats survived. No symptoms were observed.
    The fourth group got the toxin, and after the onset of tetanus symptoms (16-26 hours) they got a vitamin injection. All rats survived.
    The fifth group received a toxin, and 40 hours later vitamin C was administered intravenously. All rats survived.

  53. Effect of ascorbic acid in the treatment of tetanus. 1984, Jahan, Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull

    A controlled study of the effects of vitamin C on tetanus in Bangladesh. 117 patients were divided into two groups. The first group received 1g of vitamin C intravenously each day, in addition to the immunoglobulin. The second group only received immunoglobulin.
    In the children’s group (1-12 years old), among those who did not receive the vitamin, the mortality rate was 74%. No one died from the group that received vitamin C.
    In adults’ group (13-30 years old), among those who did not receive the vitamin, the mortality rate was 68%. 37% of those who did get the vitamin also died. Since the vitamin C dose was the same for both groups, despite the different weight of patients, it is logical to assume that a higher dose of vitamin in the adult group would further reduce the mortality rate.

    The authors also report on the results of another interesting study. Since the tetanus toxin and strychnine have a similar mode of action, they decided to check how vitamin C would affect the strychnine intoxication.
    60 two-day chicks were divided into four groups.
    The first group received 5 μg of strychnine. They showed symptoms of poisoning.
    The second group received 5 μg of strychnine, and also 30 mg of vitamin C 30 minutes before that. No symptoms were observed.
    The third group received 10 μg of strychnine. They all developed paralysis, and 80% of them died.
    The fourth group received 10 μg of strychnine and 30 mg of vitamin C. 20% of them had temporary paralysis, which lasted half an hour. The others showed no symptoms at all.
    More about strychnine and vitamin C: [1] [2]

  54. Vitamin C for prevention and treatment of tetanus. 2013, Hemilä, Cochrane Database Syst Rev

    A very interesting systematic review by Cochrane on the treatment of tetanus with vitamin C. It is worth reading in full, and then comparing in to the systematic review of the subject of aluminum in vaccines.
    The authors of this review only found one of the aforementioned studies on the effects of vitamin C on tetanus, in the entire medical literature. However, they report the following, among other things:
    Vitamin C shortens the period of common cold. Contrary to the common mantra that the cold left untreated last a week, while when treated it lasts 7 days.
    Vitamin C prevents pneumonia.
    Cancer patients, who received 10g per day intravenously, lived longer.
    Infections and bacterial toxins deplete vitamin C in the adrenal glands. Several experiments proved that vitamin C improves the function of the immune system cells (phagocytes and T-lymphocytes).
    Dozens of animal experiments proved that vitamin C increased resistance to infections and bacterial toxins, including the tetanus toxin and other clostridium bacteria toxins (C.perfringens (the one from gas gangrene) and others).
    One study determined that there was less vitamin C in the blood of tetanus patients that in the blood of healthy people. And the patients who died of tetanus had vitamin C levels lower than those who survived. Moreover, tetanus patients were observed to have higher levels of dehydroascorbate (the oxidized form of vitamin C), which indicated that tetanus depletes vitamin reserves.
    Vitamin C is safe even in very large doses. 100 grams administered intravenously did not cause side effects. When taken orally, large doses of vitamin C could cause diarrhea (more than 30 g/day for sick people, and more than 4-10 g/day for healthy ones, which also indicated that infection depleted vitamin C reserves).
    Since this single Bangladeshi study was neither blind, nor randomized, the authors do not recommend using vitamin C in treatment of tetanus, despite the complete absence of side effects. They recommend conducting additional clinical trials. Though no one is rushing to do that, for some reason. Whether WHO or UNICEF are interested in reducing tetanus mortality rate is for you to decide.

  55. Inhibition of tetanus poisoning by vitamin B-1. 1975, Pletsityĭ, Biull Eksp Biol Med

    Vitamin B1 suppresses tetanus toxin in rabbits.

  56. Tetanus in the United States, 1900-1969, Analysis by cohorts. 1972, Fraser, Am J Epidemiol

    As in the case with whooping cough, it is argued that the vaccine is responsible for reducing the incidence of tetanus by 92%, and the mortality rate by 99%.
    This article analyzes cases of tetanus in USA since 1900 and shows a graph, according to which, the mortality rate decreased by more than 95% even before the vaccination began in the late 40s.

  57. Tetanus mortality rate in Canada decreased by 80% from 1920s to 1940s. After which vaccination began and, for some reason, the mortality rate significantly increased for several years.

  58. Lectures: Dr. Suzanne Humphries (in Sweden): Part 1, Part 2

If you'd fancy to help us translate the contents of this or other chapters into another language — contact us!
Tetanus is an extremely rare disease, which is quite difficult to contract. It was extremely rare even during the First World War, with all its countless wounds and lack of sanitation. Each year, 50 people in USA die of a lightning strike. Each year, 30 people get tetanus, three of them die on average, and most of them are intravenous drug users, diabetics and the elderly. In developed countries, children do not die from tetanus, and barely ever get sick with it. It is far more logical to be afraid of gas gangrene, which is contracted in the same way as tetanus, but causes death 100 times more often, or lightning, which cause death 15 times more often.

Full-text of papers mentioned above on Google.Drive

By chapters:

1.
Anti-vaxxers
2.
Physicians
3.
Placebo
4.
Safety
5.
Unvaccinated
6.
Aluminum
7.
Papilloma
8.
Hepatitis B
9.
Whooping cough
10.
Tetanus
11.
Diphtheria
12.
Measles
13.
Mumps
14.
Rubella
15.
Polio
16.
Influenza
17.
Haemophilus influenzae
18.
Pneumococcal
19.
Chickenpox
20.
Rotavirus
21.
Hepatitis A
22.
Meningococcal
23.
Tuberculosis
24.
Vitamin K
25.
SIDS
26.
Mercury
27.
Autism
28.
Allergies and autoimmunity
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