Portland, Ore. • An unvaccinated 6-year-old Oregon boy was hospitalized for two months for tetanus and almost died of the bacterial illness after getting a deep laceration on his forehead while playing on a farm, according to a case study published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2017 case is the first case of pediatric tetanus in Oregon in more than 30 years and alarmed infectious disease experts who said tetanus is almost unheard of in the U.S. since widespread immunization began in the 1940s.
The child received an emergency dose of the tetanus vaccine in the hospital but his parents declined to give him a second dose — or any other childhood shots — after he recovered, the paper said.