Next Time You Step on a Nail…

We have all been taught during childhood, that if we “step on a nail” we should get a tetanus shot, right?  Well, it might not be that simple.  I have learned some interesting things about tetanus.  If you are the type of person who is out in the yard, working in the shop or just plain “accident prone” here are some things you might want to know. (Sneak preview- you don’t need the tetanus shot after stepping on the nail!  Keep reading to find out why).

First, rusty nails don’t cause tetanus.  It is caused by a very specific bacterium, Clostridium tetani.  When that bacterium is pushed down into your skin (such as in a deep wound), where there is no oxygen, and your body warms it up, it replicates and produces toxins.  The toxin is a neurotoxin.  It causes your muscles to seize up, become ridged and your mouth cannot move (“lockjaw”). 

The tetanus bacterium is all around us.  You may have the tetanus bacterium all over the surface of your skin, but it will be harmless as long as it is not in a deep wound. 

If it is not rusty nails, then what about other things such as a gash you sustained while building something in the yard, or the plastic end of your drill hitting you in the head at the auto shop?  Or a cut during a car accident?  All these things could cause tetanus but only if the wound is deep and bacteria are not washed out. 

Second, you must get the bacterium out of the wound as quickly as possible.  Some folks want to see how much the wound bleeds as an indicator of danger level.  A scratch will not bleed much but a deep puncture might.  The flow of blood may help to move bacteria out.  “Cleaning and “debriding” the wound —flushing and scraping out any foreign matter or dead skin — is essential for the best chance of stopping the spores from reproducing, releasing toxin, and attacking the nervous system” (reference).

Third, if you get a bad wound, and you go to the ER for treatment, they will want to give you a tetanus shot or a booster shot right then and there.  You should know that this shot will not stop a tetanus infection in the wound you have right now. 

“Neither the CDC, nor the WHO recommend a tetanus shot or a combination shot like DT or DTaP as a treatment for a current tetanus infection”(reference).  That means that the shot you get in the clinic won’t do you much good for the wound that you came in for.  There simply isn’t enough time for the protection in the shot to build in your body.  The clinic or ER is simply using the opportunity (of your presence in the clinic) to give you the shot.  If you don’t want the shot, you can refuse it.  And you might want to refuse it for some of the following reasons that I will flesh out below.

WORLD WAR 1

A German nurse during WWI described tetanus this way: “In the earth, which bears this bacillus, it is the smallest, most cruel and most malicious weapon of this war.”  World War 1 was fought on farmers’ fields rich in manure and animal fodder holding many tetanus spores.  The shrapnel from exploding bombs would enter the soldier’s bodies and infections would wreak havoc.  The army tried it’s best to ready the fighting force by giving a preventative horse serum, but that made many men ill (“serum sickness”) or die outright.  (Serum was blood from other sick humans or horses that was injected into healthy men with the intention of building antibodies. It didn’t work.

Tetanus was well known in the civilian community as well.  Fourth of July fireworks caused injuries in adults and children and prompted newspaper write-ups like the one above from 1904.

In 1924 the first tetanus vaccine was created but it was a dismal failure.  It caused more injury and death than the disease it was meant to treat.  The U.S. military created a safer version and used it extensively in WW2. Today, the tetanus vaccine is always given as a combination shot with diphtheria, and pertussis. This trivalent vaccine (called DTap, Tdap or DTP) has had many problems over the years. If you are offered a “tetanus” shot in a clinic it might be one of these combination shots (even if the doctor tells you it is just “tetanus”).

SAFETY DATA

How safe is that tetanus shot?  Apparently the military experienced “good enough” safety and efficacy up through 1944 that it was recommended for civilian populations, even infants. No additional safety trials were done before the vaccine was offered to the general public.  But infants suffered serious side effects from this early vaccine (even if they couldn’t walk and step on nails)!  Sometimes as many as 1 in 22 went to the hospital with severe side-effects after the shot (reference). The side effects were vomiting, persistent crying, limp, pale, grey colored skin, convulsions.

There have been several iterations of the vaccine over the years but the bottom line is that none of the tetanus vaccines (trivalent or otherwise) has been tested for safety against true placebos reference.  A true placebo is inert such as saline water.  If they were tested, it was against older versions of the same unsafe tetanus vaccine.  This flies against the gold standard for medication testing (reference).  How do doctors know if the shot is safe?

EFFECTIVE?

How effective is the tetanus shot?  Vaccines are made by taking a small amount of the toxic substance and putting it into the shot and the body will create antibodies.  But tetanospasmin is extremely toxic.  They have had to lower the amount in the shot so as not to kill the patient and in so doing made it worthless according to some physicians.  Dr Robert Mendelsohn “The People’s Doctor” in 1985 spoke out against the tetanus vaccine- 

“For the past decade I have spoken out against the tetanus vaccine because my fear of a rusty nail doesn’t begin to match my fear of the dangers that lurk in the hypodermic needle.” Dr Robert Mendelsohn.

EMERGENCY ROOM HERE I COME!

So what to do if you end up in the ER with some kind of deep wound? The emergency room staff will clean the wound and likely give you an antibiotic and a tetanus immunoglobulin (reference).  The immunoglobulin shot should be safe.  It is made up of antibodies against tetanus. And it should be effective.  They will then offer you the “tetanus vaccine”.  If it were me in the ER I would decline the vaccine and just accept the other treatments.  I feel better already!

So where does the rusty nail story come from? Horses were the main mode of transportation in not only rural communities but also in urban cities (before automobiles).  One horse produces at least 25 lbs of manure a day, ripe with tetanus bacteria.  Now imagine hundreds if not thousands of horses on all the city streets.  Now imagine horseshoes and loose horseshoe nails on the streets.  You get the idea…

Information in this blog post is from, among other places, Stand For Health Freedom, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting informed consent in medical care for individuals and families.

Always talk to your health professional before starting anything new.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition and is intended only for entertainment. I welcome your comments.