If I had been using the charts in the Staying Healthy guide, the answer would have been right a my finger tips along with a host of handy information like past blood pressure and cholesterol readings. The guide, like my doctor, pointed out everyone should get a tetanus-diphtheria shot every 10 years. Tetanus is also called lockjaw. Even with early treatment, tetanus kills two out of every 10 people who get it. Don't think stepping on a rusty nail is the likely way to get tetanus.
Gardeners take note.
It is a serious disease that can happen if dirt with the tetanus germ gets into a cut in the skin. Diphtheria is a very serious disease which can affect people in different ways. Sometimes it causes heart failure or paralysis. About one person out of every 10 who get diphtheria dies of it. These diseases are rare now, but before vaccines were developed, they were very common and caused a large number of deaths each year in the United States.