Problems of tetanus prevention in adults
https://doi.org/10.31631/2073-3046-2026-25-1-77-85
Abstract
Relevance. As a result of more than 90% coverage of the population with tetanus immunization in Russia, the incidence of this disease has decreased almost 100 times compared to the pre-vaccination period. Nevertheless, over the past decade, 8-19 cases of post-traumatic tetanus have been registered annually in the country, 71.3% of which were among adults. Hundreds of thousands of patients receive emergency immunization annually, in accordance with manual of the last century. The aim of the study. To present the existing problematic aspects of organizing emergency tetanus prevention in adults. Discussion: The main problem of this work is the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining reliable information about the vaccination history of a patient seeking trauma care, which leads to the administration of a double dose of AT-toxoid and antitetanus serum to individuals with a high level of antitoxic immunity. This not only leads to unnecessary financial costs for healthcare organizations, but also to overimmunization of patients and an increased risk of serious adverse events after immunization. The emergency immunization regimen using AT-toxoid complicates diphtheria vaccination planning and conflicts with the instructions for use of the rabies vaccine in cases of animal bites. The indirect hemagglutination test are used for assessing immunity to tetanus in our country, while in other countries, enzymelinked immunosorbent assays and immunochromatographic tests are used for this purpose, including the rapid tests in individual packages. Conclusion. In modern conditions, it is necessary to optimize the tactics of emergency tetanus prevention, including a revision of current recommendations for emergency tetanus prevention, measures aimed at ensuring the availability of data on previously administered vaccinations for patients and healthcare organizations, and the development of domestic rapid tests for the quantitative determination of IgG to tetanus toxoid.
About the Author
L. V. Rubis
Petrozavodsk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Lyudmila V. Rubis – Cand. Sci. (Med.), Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Medical Institute
+7 (921) 469-20-78
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For citations:
Rubis L.V. Problems of tetanus prevention in adults. Epidemiology and Vaccinal Prevention. 2026;25(1):77-85. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31631/2073-3046-2026-25-1-77-85
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