An Assessment of the Presence of Clostridium tetani in the Soil and on Other Surfaces
Standard emergency medicine practice includes tetanus vaccine administration as part of wound care management for patients who are not fully immunized. Since there have been no available studies in the United States reaffirming the prevalence of since 1926, we sought to identify its prevalence in a...
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Veröffentlicht in: | The western journal of emergency medicine 2024-11, Vol.25 (6), p.890-893 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Standard emergency medicine practice includes tetanus vaccine administration as part of wound care management for patients who are not fully immunized. Since there have been no available studies in the United States reaffirming the prevalence of
since 1926, we sought to identify its prevalence in a major urban county in the US.
We sampled soil, rusted metal, concrete, and dog feces to determine the prevalence of
in a single metropolitan county in the United States. Soil samples and swabs were collected from four locations: the soil of a public park and an elementary school; dog feces from a single public dog park; and rusted surfaces (metal and concrete) in common student areas of a university campus. The presence of
in each sample was determined using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
In total, 200 samples were collected, of which 37 (18.5%) tested positive for
DNA. Among the 140 samples taken from the soil, just one (0.7%) tested positive for
DNA. Of the 40 samples of rusted metal and concrete surfaces, 30 (75%) tested positive for
, and six (30%) of the 20 samples from dog feces tested positive for
.
We found that
is frequently present on rusted metal and concrete surfaces but rarely in soil samples. Minor wounds contaminated with soil may be considered low risk for tetanus. However, future studies should assess the burden of
in other similar urban, suburban, and rural environments to help determine the threat of
more exactly. |
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ISSN: | 1936-9018 1936-900X 1936-9018 |
DOI: | 10.5811/WESTJEM.18702 |