Current Epidemic Situation on Tetanus, Status and Success of Vaccination

Tetanus, caused by the action of toxins produced by Clostridium tetani, remains a disease with high mortality.Aims: based on publications and official sources, to present a description of the current epidemic situation with tetanus in the world, the organization of planned vaccination against the disease, its effectiveness and safety. The prevalence of C.tetani has a zonality determined by the climatic and geographical features of the areas, but the incidence rate of tetanus in the modern period is determined by the state of work on its vaccination. From 1980 to 2023, the number of tetanus cases in the world decreased by 5.3 times. In Russia in the middle of the last century, an average of about 800 cases were registered annually, in 2006-2023 - from 8 to 21 cases. The coverage of completed 3-doses vaccination of children in the world in 2018-2023 was 84-86 %, in our country it exceeded 96 %. The coverage of adults with vaccination in Russia exceeds 90 %, which is confirmed by the results of seromonitoring of collective immunity. National tetanus vaccination shchedule have some differences, not all countries carry out boosters doses of the adult population. Vaccines with different tetanus toxoid content are used to immunize children and adults, and post-vaccination complications after the use of vaccines containing tetanus toxoid are rarely recorded. Selective studies of tetanus seroprevalence in the population conducted in various countries, including some regions of Russia, have shown a high level of immune protection for children and adults. The proportion of people with a protective level of antitoxic antibodies to tetanus in different age groups was higher than to diphtheria. It was shown that antitoxic immunity to tetanus persists for over 10 years at a level higher than protective.Conclusion: Decades of planned mass immunization of the world population against tetanus have shown its high epidemiological effectiveness and safety. Persons who have completed the vaccination course develop more intense and long-lasting antitoxic immunity than to diphtheria.