tetanus resurgence: vaccine hesitancy
A recent article reviewed the resurgence of tetanus in the US that is associated with inadequate tetanus vaccine administration: see tetanus resurgence JAMA2026 in dropbox, or doi:10.1001/jama.2026.9347 A few background issues: -- tetanus is ubiquitous in nature -- clinical tetanus develops in humans when the spores of the Clostridium tetani bacteria germinate in anaerobic environments; the spores release the tetanus toxin tetanospasmin -- the typical scenario is having a contaminated or deep wound providing anaerobic conditions -- the diagnosis of tetanus is a clinical one: there are no diagnostic tests that support or rule out tetanus -- this toxin affects the sympathetic nervous system by interfering with the release of neurotransmitters, resulting in sustained muscular contraction and spasms -- this effect involves many different muscles, leading to respiratory failure from chest wall spasms, diaphragmatic dysfunction, laryngospasm and airway obs...