People who received childhood vaccinations against tetanus and diphtheria likely do not need routine booster shots in adulthood, a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases shows.
The World Health Organization does not recommend routine adult booster shots for tetanus and diphtheria, but many countries continue to give them.
For the study, researchers used WHO case reports from 2001 through 2016 to compare the incidence of tetanus and diphtheria in 31 North American and European countries. They compared countries that vaccinate adults every five to 20 years (group 1) with countries that do not routinely vaccinate adults for tetanus or diphtheria (group 2).
They found no significant decline in tetanus incidence rates in countries that implement routine booster vaccinations for adults compared to countries that do not.
Similarly, there was no significant difference in diphtheria incidence between the two groups of countries.