This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Tetanus vaccination

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Tetanus vaccination functions by stimulating the production of antitoxin, thus providing immunity to the effects of the toxin.

The immunogen is cell-free toxin prepared from the filtrate of a broth culture of C. tetani. It is inactivated by treatment with formaldehyde and usually absorbed onto an adjuvant such as aluminium phosphate or aluminium hydroxide. Bordatella pertussis can also act as an adjuvant.

Tetanus vaccines contain not less than 20IU of tetanus toxoid

  • The tetanus vaccine is only given as part of combined products for the UK national vaccination programme:
    • diphtheria/tetanus/acellular pertussis/inactivated polio vaccine/Haemophilus influenzae type b/Hepatitis B (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB)
    • diphtheria/tetanus/acellular pertussis/inactivated polio vaccine (DTaP/IPV or dTaP/IPV
    • tetanus/diphtheria/inactivated polio vaccine (Td/IPV)

The above vaccines are:

  • thiomersal-free.are inactivated
  • do not contain live organisms and cannot cause the diseases against which they protect

Reference:

  1. Update on immunisation issues (August 2002). PL/CMO/2002/4, PL/CNO/2002/4,PL/CPHO/2002/2
  2. Department of Health (August 10th 2004). New vaccinations for the childhood immunisation programme. PL/CMO/2004/3, PL/CNO/2004/2, PL/CPHO/2004/3.
  3. Department of Health (April 2019). Tetanus- Green Book Chapter 30.

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.