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Unprotected People Reports: Tetanus |
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Philosophic Objection to Vaccination as a Risk for Tetanus Among Children Younger Than 15 Years |
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| Click here for a fully-formatted PDF version
of this report |
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| The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)
publishes articles about people who have suffered or died from
vaccine-preventable diseases and periodically devotes an “IAC Express”
issue to such an article. This is the 62nd in our series. |
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| The article was published in “Pediatrics”
January 2002; the abstract is reprinted below. |
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By Elizabeth Fair, MPH, Trudy V. Murphy, MD,
Anne Golaz, MD, MPH, and Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH
National Immunization
Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta |
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Abstract
Objectives. Although safe and
effective vaccines are available to protect against tetanus in the United
States and vaccination rates are high, cases of tetanus among children
continue to occur. The objectives of this article are to describe reported
cases of tetanus in children in the United States and to identify the
reasons for lack of protection against tetanus.
Methods. We reviewed all cases of tetanus in
children less than 15 years of age that were reported to the National Notifiable Diseases
Surveillance System from 1992 through 2000. Cases were
defined by physician diagnosis. We verified the information in the case
reports with state and local health departments.
Results. From 1992 through 2000, 15 cases of
tetanus in children less than 15 years of age were reported from 11 states.
Twelve cases were in boys. Two cases were in neonates less than 10 days of
age; the other 13 cases were in children who ranged in age from 3 to 14
years. The median length of hospitalization was 28 days; 8 children required
mechanical ventilation. There were no deaths. Twelve (80%) children were
unprotected because of lack of vaccination, including 1 neonate whose mother
was not vaccinated. Among all unvaccinated cases, objection to vaccination,
either religious or philosophic, was the reported reason for choosing not to
vaccinate.
Conclusion. The majority of recent cases of
tetanus among children in the United States were in unvaccinated children
whose parents objected to vaccination. Parents who choose not to vaccinate
their children should be advised of the seriousness of the disease and be
informed that tetanus is not preventable by means other than vaccination.
To access a camera-ready (PDF) copy of the
complete article from the "Pediatrics" website, go to: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/109/1/e2.pdf
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| 10/31/03 • REPORT #62 |
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| Disclaimer: The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) publishes
Unprotected People Reports for the purpose of making them available
for our readers' review. We have not verified the content of this
report. |
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