Tetanus Surveillance and Trends

Key points

  • CDC tracks tetanus cases using a national surveillance system.
  • Tetanus cases are rare in the United States and have decreased significantly since the late 1940s.
An illustration of generic data

Data system

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System

Tetanus is a nationally notifiable disease.

Health departments report cases of tetanus to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). CDC collects national information about tetanus through NNDSS.

How the data are interpreted

Disease burden

In the United States, sporadic cases of tetanus continue to occur. Since 2000, there have been less than 50 reported cases each year. Most cases are in adults who either

  • Never received a tetanus vaccine
  • Didn't stay up to date with their 10-year booster shots

Disease trends

Early 1900s: Reported cases and deaths from tetanus started to decline. In part due to the development and use of tetanus immune globulin (TIG).

1940s: Tetanus toxoid-containing vaccines became part of routine U.S. childhood vaccination. Tetanus became a nationally notifiable disease.

Since 1947 reported tetanus cases have declined more than 95%. Reported deaths from tetanus have declined more than 99%.

Vaccination and continued use of TIG for wound management played a role in the decline of cases and deaths.

Line graph showing U.S. reported tetanus cases between 1947-2022. From 1947–2022, the number of tetanus cases reported each year, which already had decreased greatly since 1900, continued to decline, and remained low through 2022.
Tetanus cases declined with use of TIG and vaccines.

Data definition

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) published the most recent case definition for tetanus in 2010.