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What’s rust got to do with it? Very little.
The conversation in which your parents tell you to keep an eye out for rusty nails is basically a rite of passage. They tell you about the dangers of rust; explain the see something, say something protocol for things that look like they could puncture you; and foreshadow the harsh punishment for disobeying—lockjaw.
This advice certainly comes from a good place. But it’s also fundamentally wrong.
This is not to say that tetanus isn’t as bad as parents promise. In North America, the Cleveland Clinic estimates, 10 percent of cases are fatal. In countries with inadequate or inaccessible medical care, the number is believed to be much higher.
Even survival takes its toll. On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new installment in its “Notes from the Field” series about an unvaccinated 6-year-old boy in Oregon who contracted tetanus after he got a cut in his forehead. The bacteria incubated inside his little body for a few days, then suddenly manifested in horrible jaw clenching and muscle spasms, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature irregularities. He lived, but only after 57 days in the hospital and more than $800,000 in medical bills.
But counter to what rusty nail warnings might have you believe, the disease has nothing to do with iron oxide, the chemical compound more commonly known as rust. Rather, tetanus is a product of the bacteria Clostridium tetani, which is in dirt, dust, and feces—in other words, everywhere. It can enter your body through puncture wounds, yes, but also through superficial cuts, bug bites, surgical procedures, and any other rupture to your skin. It can come from stepping on a rusty nail, or tending the soil in your garden. That’s why it’s so essential to track your booster shots: You need one every decade, not just when you rip your palm open on a rusty chain link fence. Waiting for a classic tetanus injury won’t work when anything could, in theory, be a tetanus injury.
www.popsci.com
The conversation in which your parents tell you to keep an eye out for rusty nails is basically a rite of passage. They tell you about the dangers of rust; explain the see something, say something protocol for things that look like they could puncture you; and foreshadow the harsh punishment for disobeying—lockjaw.
This advice certainly comes from a good place. But it’s also fundamentally wrong.
This is not to say that tetanus isn’t as bad as parents promise. In North America, the Cleveland Clinic estimates, 10 percent of cases are fatal. In countries with inadequate or inaccessible medical care, the number is believed to be much higher.
Even survival takes its toll. On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new installment in its “Notes from the Field” series about an unvaccinated 6-year-old boy in Oregon who contracted tetanus after he got a cut in his forehead. The bacteria incubated inside his little body for a few days, then suddenly manifested in horrible jaw clenching and muscle spasms, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature irregularities. He lived, but only after 57 days in the hospital and more than $800,000 in medical bills.
But counter to what rusty nail warnings might have you believe, the disease has nothing to do with iron oxide, the chemical compound more commonly known as rust. Rather, tetanus is a product of the bacteria Clostridium tetani, which is in dirt, dust, and feces—in other words, everywhere. It can enter your body through puncture wounds, yes, but also through superficial cuts, bug bites, surgical procedures, and any other rupture to your skin. It can come from stepping on a rusty nail, or tending the soil in your garden. That’s why it’s so essential to track your booster shots: You need one every decade, not just when you rip your palm open on a rusty chain link fence. Waiting for a classic tetanus injury won’t work when anything could, in theory, be a tetanus injury.
Everything you thought you knew about tetanus is wrong
Tetanus really is as bad as parents promise. But rust’s role in the deadly affair has been totally overblown.
www.popsci.com
