Tetanus is an acute infectious disease caused by spores of the spore-forming, toxin-producing bacterium Clostridium tetani [2][3]. The spores are ubiquitous in the environment—particularly in soil, ash, the intestinal tracts and feces of animals and humans, and on skin surfaces and rusty implements such as nails, needles, and barbed wire—and are highly resistant to heat and most antiseptics [2][3]. Tetanus occurring during pregnancy or within six weeks of the end of pregnancy is termed maternal tetanus, and tetanus within the first 28 days of life is termed neonatal tetanus [2][3].
Disease overview
BacterialTetanus
破伤风
Evidence-backed informationEN 5/7 applicable sections · ZH 5/7 applicable sectionsUpdated Sep 3, 2026
Tetanus is an acute, vaccine-preventable disease caused by spores of Clostridium tetani, a toxin-producing bacterium found in soil, dust, ash, and animal or human feces. Infection typically occurs through contaminated wounds or burns, and the resulting neurotoxin causes painful muscle spasms, rigidity, and dysautonomia [1][2][3]. Although global mortality declined by almost 90% between 1990 and 2019 following the success of WHO's Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination campaign, tetanus remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in southern Asia, southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa [1][2]. Nearly all reported cases occur in unvaccinated individuals or in adults whose booster doses have lapsed [3].
Read the full clinical and epidemiological profile6
After an incubation period of 3 to 21 days—most cases presenting within 14 days—the tetanus neurotoxin produces characteristic muscle spasms and rigidity [1][2][3]. Clinical manifestations include jaw cramping or trismus (commonly known as "lockjaw"), painful spasms of the back, abdomen, and extremities often triggered by sudden noises, difficulty swallowing, seizures, headache, fever, sweating, and changes in blood pressure or heart rate [1][3]. In neonatal tetanus, muscle spasms are frequently preceded by the newborn's inability to suck or breastfeed and excessive crying [2][3]. Diagnosis is based primarily on clinical features and does not require laboratory confirmation [2].
Tetanus is now a rare diagnosis in high-income countries but remains an important vaccine-preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in southern Asia, southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Global deaths from tetanus fell by almost 90% between 1990 and 2019, largely reflecting the impact of WHO's Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination campaign, although mortality among children and adults has since plateaued [1].
C. tetani spores typically enter the body through contaminated wounds or burns, and the disease is not transmitted person-to-person [1][2][3]. In neonatal tetanus, infection occurs when nonsterile instruments are used to cut the umbilical cord or when contaminated material is applied to the umbilical stump; deliveries performed by people with unclean hands or on contaminated surfaces are also risk factors [2]. The bacteria are particularly common in soil, saliva, dust, and manure, and can enter through deep cuts, wounds, or burns [3].
Tetanus is preventable through immunization with tetanus-toxoid-containing vaccines (TTCV), which are part of routine immunization programmes worldwide and are also delivered during antenatal care contacts [2]. WHO recommends a total of six doses—three primary doses beginning as early as six weeks of age, followed by three booster doses given in the second year of life (12–23 months), at 4–7 years of age, and at 9–15 years of age—with at least four years between booster doses for lifelong protection [2]. Nearly all tetanus cases occur in unvaccinated individuals or in adults who have not maintained their booster schedule, underscoring the importance of complete and timely immunization across the life course [3].
- 1Sudarshan R et al. Tetanus: recognition and management. Lancet Infect Dis. 2025 Nov. PMID: 40543524. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(25)00292-0.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40543524/
- 2World Health Organization. Tetanus [Internet]. cited 3 Sept 2026.Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tetanus
- 3World Health Organization. Tetanus [Internet]. cited 3 Sept 2026.Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/tetanus
Coverage
Reporting countries and regions
AustraliaAU
AustriaAT
BelgiumBE
BrazilBR
BulgariaBG
CanadaCA
CroatiaHR
CyprusCY
CzechiaCZ
DenmarkDK
EstoniaEE
FinlandFI
FranceFR
GermanyDE
GreeceGR
Hong Kong, ChinaHK
HungaryHU
IcelandIS
IrelandIE
ItalyIT
JapanJP
LatviaLV
LiechtensteinLI
LithuaniaLT
LuxembourgLU
MaltaMT
NetherlandsNL
NorwayNO
PolandPL
PortugalPT
RomaniaRO
SingaporeSG
SlovakiaSK
SloveniaSI
South KoreaKR
SpainES
SwedenSE
SwitzerlandCH
United KingdomGB
United StatesUS
Trends by reporting country
Monthly patterns over time
Research Radar
Recent related research
Post-marketing safety surveillance of tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine: a disproportionality analysis of the vaccine adverse event reporting system (2015–2025)
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BMC Infectious Diseases
Safety of a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACYW-TT) administered concomitantly with routine pediatric vaccines in healthy infants and toddlers in USA and Puerto Rico: Results from a Phase III, randomized, active-controlled study.
Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics
A phase III clinical trial on the immunogenicity of a tetanus vaccine, adsorbed in individuals aged 18 years and above in China
Frontiers in Immunology
Neonatal tetanus in undocumented migrant families in Saudi Arabia: outcomes and critical care resource utilization in a 10-year tertiary PICU cohort
Frontiers in Pediatrics
Showing 5 of 17 related publications.
Literature links are provided for discovery and do not alter or validate the surveillance series above.
Data access
Page dataset index with source links and update metadata.
Official sourcesAuthority, cadence, notes54
Austria AGES Radar for Infectious Diseases
Austria
AGES Radar monthly national source. Internal ingestion retains native categories; public release is disabled pending licence review.
Australia NINDSS
Australia
Australian national notifiable diseases surveillance dashboard.
Australia NINDSS — Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Australian Capital Territory, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — New South Wales
New South Wales, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for New South Wales, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Northern Territory
Northern Territory, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Northern Territory, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Queensland
Queensland, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Queensland, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — South Australia
South Australia, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for South Australia, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Tasmania
Tasmania, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Tasmania, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Victoria
Victoria, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Victoria, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Western Australia
Western Australia, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Western Australia, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Belgium Annual Baseline
Belgium
Belgium annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Bulgaria Annual Baseline
Bulgaria
Bulgaria annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Brazil DATASUS SINAN
Brazil
Brazil Ministry of Health DATASUS/SINAN public DBC microdata aggregated to national monthly notification counts.
Canada PHAC CNDSS Annual
Canada
Canada is the national jurisdiction; subdivision feeds are registered separately.
Public Health Ontario IDTO Monthly
Ontario, Canada
Ontario-level current-year preliminary monthly case counts from Public Health Ontario's IDTO report.
Switzerland FOPH IDD
Switzerland
Switzerland FOPH/BAG IDD mandatory reporting API normalized to national case rows. Monthly series may use the dashboard CHFL aggregate where CH-only monthly series are not exposed.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Cyprus Annual Baseline
Cyprus
Cyprus annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Czechia Annual Baseline
Czechia
Czechia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Germany RKI SurvStat 2.0
Germany
RKI SurvStat national weekly notification export; raw ZIP exports are retained and recent weeks are overwritten for revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Denmark Annual Baseline
Denmark
Denmark annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Estonia Annual Baseline
Estonia
Estonia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Spain Annual Baseline
Spain
Spain annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register
Finland
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register national monthly case counts. The current month is ingested as provisional and the latest three months are refreshed for source revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — France Annual Baseline
France
France annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — United Kingdom Annual Baseline
United Kingdom
United Kingdom annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Greece Annual Baseline
Greece
Greece annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Hong Kong, China CHP Notifiable Diseases
Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong, China CHP annual notifiable infectious disease CSVs normalized to national monthly totals
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Croatia Annual Baseline
Croatia
Croatia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Hungary Annual Baseline
Hungary
Hungary annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Ireland HPSC Notifiable Diseases Hub
Ireland
Ireland HPSC national weekly notifiable-disease totals from the official ArcGIS FeatureServer. Internal ingestion is enabled; public release remains disabled pending written redistribution permission.
Iceland Directorate of Health Annual Dashboard
Iceland
National annual case notifications by disease. Published values can be revised retrospectively and remain annual period totals.
Iceland Directorate of Health STI Dashboard
Iceland
Monthly STI diagnosis facts from laboratory and registry surveillance; the official dashboard is published on a quarterly schedule.
Iceland Directorate of Health Respiratory Dashboard
Iceland
ISO-week respiratory diagnosis counts. Hospitalizations, samples, and vaccination indicators are separate measures and are not counted as diagnoses.
Iceland Directorate of Health Historical Registry
Iceland
Historical official registry tables for 1997–2021, with annual totals and disease-specific monthly notification facts retained at source grain.
Iceland Directorate of Health Legacy ICD Monthly
Iceland
Historical Saga EHR ICD encounter counts for 1997–2020. This clinical measure is non-comparable with registry notifications and is kept separate.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Italy Annual Baseline
Italy
Italy annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
JP NIID Weekly
Japan
Japan weekly infectious disease surveillance via NIID/JIHS.
Korea KDCA EID
South Korea
Korea KDCA notifiable infectious disease OpenAPI or portal/KOSIS downloads aggregated to national monthly notification counts.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Liechtenstein Annual Baseline
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Lithuania Annual Baseline
Lithuania
Lithuania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Luxembourg Annual Baseline
Luxembourg
Luxembourg annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Latvia Annual Baseline
Latvia
Latvia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Malta Annual Baseline
Malta
Malta annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Netherlands Annual Baseline
Netherlands
Netherlands annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Norway FHI MSIS Statistics Bank
Norway
Norway FHI MSIS national monthly notifications from the official Allvis frontend API; adapter contract checks guard the unversioned endpoint.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Poland Annual Baseline
Poland
Poland annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Portugal Annual Baseline
Portugal
Portugal annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Romania Annual Baseline
Romania
Romania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Sweden Public Health Agency SmiNet
Sweden
Sweden SmiNet national monthly reported cases from the official Public Health Agency statistics pages; public release is enabled with closed-month publication and revisable recent-month refreshes.
Singapore CDA Weekly Infectious Diseases Bulletin
Singapore
Singapore national weekly case notifications, combining the official data.gov.sg 2012–2022 CSV history with CDA annual workbooks from 2023 onward; 2023 weekly PDFs are retained as a source fallback.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovenia Annual Baseline
Slovenia
Slovenia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovakia Annual Baseline
Slovakia
Slovakia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
US CDC NNDSS
United States
CDC National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System provisional data.
US CDC NHSS HIV
United States
CDC NNDSS weekly data plus NHSS annual national HIV diagnoses