In 2022, there were around 28 cases of tetanus in the United States. The annual number of tetanus cases in the United States has decreased steadily over the past few decades, and in the years 2018 and 2019 there were no reported cases. The decrease in tetanus cases in the United States and around the world is mostly due to high rates of vaccination.

What is tetanus? Tetanus is an infection caused by bacteria that live in the environment. Spores of tetanus bacteria are often found in soil and dust and enter the body through broken skin, such as puncture wounds. Tetanus cannot be spread from one person to another. One of the most common symptoms of tetanus is a tightening of the jaw muscles, leading tetanus to often be called "lockjaw". Other symptoms include muscle spasms, muscle stiffness, trouble swallowing, seizures, headache, and fever. Like in the United States, cases of tetanus have decreased since the year 1980 for every region around the world. In 2022, there were a total of 6,651 cases of tetanus worldwide. The highest number of cases was found in Africa, however the year prior the Eastern Mediterranean reported the most cases.

Tetanus vaccination Vaccination is the best way to protect against tetanus and most cases of tetanus in the United States are among people who have not been vaccinated. There are multiple vaccinations that protect against tetanus as well as other diseases such as DTap, DT, Tdap, and Td. Tetanus vaccinations are safe and effective and recommended for people of all ages, with children receiving multiple vaccinations and adults recommended to get vaccinated every 10 years. As of 2022, around 94 percent of one-year-olds in the United States had received the recommended three doses of the combined diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and pertussis (DTP3) vaccine.

Since 1999, the number of deaths caused by tetanus in the United States has not exceeded 10 in a given year. This statistic shows the number of deaths caused by tetanus in the U.S. from 1990 to 2019.

The number of cases of tetanus worldwide has decreased dramatically since 1980. This statistic shows the number of cases of tetanus reported each year from 1980 to 2023 worldwide, by region.

Project Tycho datasets contain case counts for reported disease conditions for countries around the world. The Project Tycho data curation team extracts these case counts from various reputable sources, typically from national or international health authorities, such as the US Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization. These original data sources include both open- and restricted-access sources. For restricted-access sources, the Project Tycho team has obtained permission for redistribution from data contributors. All datasets contain case count data that are identical to counts published in the original source and no counts have been modified in any way by the Project Tycho team. The Project Tycho team has pre-processed datasets by adding new variables, such as standard disease and location identifiers, that improve data interpretabilty. We also formatted the data into a standard data format.

Each Project Tycho dataset contains case counts for a specific condition (e.g. measles) and for a specific country (e.g. The United States). Case counts are reported per time interval. In addition to case counts, datsets include information about these counts (attributes), such as the location, age group, subpopulation, diagnostic certainty, place of aquisition, and the source from which we extracted case counts. One dataset can include many series of case count time intervals, such as "US measles cases as reported by CDC", or "US measles cases reported by WHO", or "US measles cases that originated abroad", etc.

Depending on the intended use of a dataset, we recommend a few data processing steps before analysis:

• Analyze missing data: Project Tycho datasets do not inlcude time intervals for which no case count was reported (for many datasets, time series of case counts are incomplete, due to incompleteness of source documents) and users will need to add time intervals for which no count value is available. Project Tycho datasets do include time intervals for which a case count value of zero was reported.
• Separate cumulative from non-cumulative time interval series. Case count time series in Project Tycho datasets can be "cumulative" or "fixed-intervals". Cumulative case count time series consist of overlapping case count intervals starting on the same date, but ending on different dates. For example, each interval in a cumulative count time series can start on January 1st, but end on January 7th, 14th, 21st, etc. It is common practice among public health agencies to report cases for cumulative time intervals. Case count series with fixed time intervals consist of mutually exxclusive time intervals that all start and end on different dates and all have identical length (day, week, month, year). Given the different nature of these two types of case count data, we indicated this with an attribute for each count value, named "PartOfCumulativeCountSeries".

In 2024, around 1,185 petitions were filed with the United States National Injury Compensation Program (VICP) seeking compensation for injury or death caused by vaccines. However, just because a petition was filed seeking compensation for injury or death due to a vaccination does not mean that compensation was awarded. Over half of all such petitions filed in the U.S. since 1988 have been dismissed, and in 60 percent of cases in which compensation was awarded it was still not determined whether the alleged vaccine caused the alleged injury. The impact of vaccinations Vaccinations in the United States have had a significant impact on infectious diseases. For example, as of 2017, there are only about 120 new cases of measles per year, compared to over half a million annual cases before the use of vaccination. Vaccinations in the U.S. have also greatly decreased the number of annual cases of hepatitis A and B, rubella, and tetanus. COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy Vaccine hesitancy is a persistent issue in the United States. The issue became especially pertinent during the COVID-19 pandemic in which many people in the United States expressed reluctance to getting a COVID-19 vaccination. In December 2020, 59 percent of adults in the United States who stated they would definitely not or probably not get a COVID-19 vaccine said so because they were worried about possible side effects, while 55 percent said they probably wouldn’t get a COVID-19 vaccination because they do not trust the government to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective. Shockingly, one survey found that even 29 percent of health care workers stated they would probably or definitely not get a COVID-19 vaccine.