I know is it’s a shot for wounds that potentially could have rust or something else that you wouldn’t want in an open wound. But how do they work?
In: Biology
Getting dirt in a wound is bad, but tetanus results from getting tetanus bacteria in a *deep* wound, like a puncture wound. The bacteria are very common, but they only cause disease if they can grow in an anaerobic (no air) environment. The bacteria produce a toxin, which is what causes the spasms and other neurological problems that we call tetanus.
The typical “tetanus shot” is not a vaccine against the bacterium itself. It’s a *toxoid vaccine* — it works against the toxin that the bacterium produces. It primes your immune system to attack the toxin and clear it from your tissues before it can cause sickness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus_vaccine
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