CKS is no longer commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE remains committed to providing a replacement service for CKS and is currently reviewing its options. In the meantime, although CKS content is now not being maintained, it still remains relevant and will continue to be made available. CKS content was generated under a programme of topic creation and update. To check if the topic you are viewing is current or out of date, please refer to the topic publication details by clicking on the 'How up-to-date is this topic?' link in the left hand menu on individual topic pages.
Immunizations - childhood vaccination programme - Evidence
Evidence on vaccines for tetanus
The best evidence for the efficacy of the tetanus vaccine is the decline in the prevalence of the disease since immunization was introduced. It is now a rare disease with almost all cases occurring in un-vaccinated people.
- There are no controlled trials to verify the efficacy of the tetanus vaccine, which was first rolled out in the UK as a national programme in 1961. However, since the introduction of vaccination, tetanus has become rare; between 1984 and 2004 there were 198 notifications of tetanus in England and Wales, and in 2006 there were only three notifications [HPA, 2007f].
- Most notifications are in older people who have not been vaccinated, or fully vaccinated, against the disease.
- There have been reported clusters of tetanus occurring in intravenous drug users, probably due to contaminated batches of illicit drugs.
[DH, 2006g]
© NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement