[Medical Q&A] Do you need a tetanus shot if you cut your hand while cutting vegetables?

Planner: Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Guo Shubin, Chief Physician, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University

Tetanus is a specific infection. The pathogen causing the disease is Clostridium tetani, an anaerobic bacterium that exists in large quantities in the intestines of humans and animals. The soil is contaminated by feces and the disease is caused by wound infection. The occurrence of tetanus is closely related to the injury (wound size, contamination, and wounding device), tissue hypoxia (wound depth), and active immunity. If you are stabbed by a rusty nail or the wound is narrow and deep, it is easy to form an oxygen-deficient environment, which will cause infection with Clostridium tetani.

The tetanus shot actually refers to the injection of tetanus antitoxin or tetanus immunoglobulin. For clean wounds such as cuts by kitchen knives, just pay attention to local treatment of the wound; for contaminated or suspicious wounds, rinse them promptly and thoroughly, and then go to the hospital for follow-up treatment, which includes the tetanus shot.