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Tetanus is a serious disease with high mortality, which is very difficult to treat but can be prevented easily by vaccination. The number of tetanus cases reported in Turkey was 42 in 1996 and 51 in 1997. This study was carried out on children aged 12 to 47 months who have vaccination cards in the No. l Health Centre in Batikent district in Ankara, Turkey. Forty-one of the children had received 3 doses (Group 1) of tetanus vaccine, and 47 of them had received 4 doses of the vaccine (Group 2). Anti-toxoid IgG antibody in blood sera was quantified by using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. In Group 1, antibody levels more than 0.01 IU/mL were found in 47%, 43%, and 45% of blood sera of children aged 12 to 23 months, 24 to 35 months, and 36 to 47 months, respectively. These rates in Group 2 were found to be 91%, 88%, and 60%, respectively. The protective antibody response (>1 IU/mL) was found to be higher for children in Group 2 than in Group 1, but both rates declined with age. Checking immunization status periodically and giving vaccine doses as required are essential to increase the antibody response. Further, it is a must in developing countries where vaccination efforts are hindered by cold-chain problems, underoptimum application practice, and high prevalence of concomitant infections.

The objective of this study was to determine the tetanus immunity status of pregnant women at the time of delivery according to tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccination coverage during their most pregnancy. The serum anti-tetanus antibody levels of 493 mothers who had live births at a hospital in Ankara were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Protected women were defined as those with serum antibody levels > or = 0.6 IU/ml. Overall, 69.0% of mothers had protective tetanus antibody titers at the time of delivery. The rates of protection for mothers who had received no vaccination, one TT dose, or two TT doses during pregnancy were 46.4, 93.5, and 95.6%, respectively. Vaccinating every pregnant woman with at least one dose of TT would be an affordable and effective way to protect against neonatal tetanus, and would be a step toward eliminating the deaths that continue to occur due to this preventable disease in Turkey.