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As somebody who has recently come into contact between another person's blood and/or other fluids and a cut on my hand should I ask them for the year of their most recent tetanus shot? As far as I am aware that only provides them immunity and has no herd immunity effect for others and so no application to me. I've already gotten their records for other things that seemed relevant, but my uncle says I should find out. This person is likely to give me a hard time if I simply demand it so I was hoping you could tell me if there was any benefit before I bothered.

My questions are:

  • Can one contract tetanus from contact with other persons bodily fluids via cut on the skin?

  • Does tetanus vaccination of the person whose fluids one came into contact with matter? / Is tetanus vaccination of the person whose blood I came in contact with medically relevant for me?

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    There are some things you should perhaps worry about, but tetanus isn't one of them.
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 22:16

1 Answer 1

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Clostridium tetani is the causative organism in tetanus. It requires an anaerobic environment to grow so is found in soil and in the gut of animals. Person to person transmission is not possible. Vaccination state is irrelevant for both parties.

http://www.cdc.gov/tetanus/about/index.html

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