What should I know about tetanus?
Tetanus, commonly known as lockjaw, is caused by toxins secreted by certain soil-dwelling bacteria. Such toxins can severely disrupt nerve function. This interference may result in muscle spasms, breathing failure and death.
Tetanus occurs almost exclusively in people who have not been immunized or have been inadequately immunized. Protective levels of antibody can be achieved by completing primary immunization. A complete series of tetanus shots usually provides security for ten years. Boosters are required every decade or so after that. If, however, you sustain a severe or particularly dirty wound, you should get a tetanus booster, especially if you haven’t received one during the preceding five years.
In addition, if you’re not immune and suffer a seriously contaminating injury, your doctor can quickly give you anti-tetanus immune globulins. This form of passive immunity will protect you until you are fully vaccinated.

Can having a tetanus booster be dangerous?
Not, really, but it is important to pay attention to any reactions, both minor and major, at the site of the injection. Minor reactions usually consist of some redness or slight swelling with or without tenderness, and may occur after inoculation with the combined tetanus and diphtheria toxoids (harmless forms of toxins).
Although such local reactions, which generally begin two to eight hours after an injection, may occasionally cause discomfort, they are rarely serious. If you experience such a reaction, it probably means that you have high levels of immunity. In such a case you should try to avoid having a booster shot more than once every ten years; otherwise you will probably have another reaction.

What exactly is polio? How often are polio immunizations given?
The polio story is a familiar one, but the facts concerning inoculation and the possibility of bad reactions are worth reviewing. Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a viral infection that may affect the spinal cord and cause permanent, partial or complete paralysis.
There are currently two types of polio vaccines available in Australia and New Zealand: the live but harmless oral poliovirus vaccine and the dead poliovirus vaccine administered by injection. The oral polio vaccine is generally preferred because it provides more resistance to viral infection in the gastrointestinal tract, the area the poliovirus first strikes. A potentially serious side effect of the oral vaccine is that in rare cases it can cause paralysis itself. But the risk, especially in children, is so slight that the oral vaccine is now routinely administered to all normal infants and children under the age of 18 years. Injections of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) are generally given only to children with a suppressed immune system or to parents nursing children. The primary oral polio vaccine (OPV) series consists of three doses, usually given to infants at two, four and six months in Australia, and at three, five and eighteen months in New Zealand. It can be given simultaneously with the dephtheria-tetanus-pertusis vaccine (DTP). A booster is given at the time to entry to school (at about five years old), and in Australia a further booster may be given at 15 to 19 years when leaving school. In Australia, older unimmunized children are given their three doses four to eight weeks apart; in New Zealand the first two doses for older children are given six to eight weeks apart, with the third dose eight to twelve months later. In both countries, when immunization is administered by injection (with inactivated polio virus vaccine) the initial series consists of three injections four to twelve months after the third.

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