Tetanus

Tetanus is a sometimes-fatal disease that attacks the nerve endings where they attach to the muscles in your body. You are at risk of getting tetanus when bacteria from the soil get inside a puncture or break in your skin.
The bacteria that cause tetanus (called Clostridium tetani) use little if any oxygen, so if you get a scratch right on the surface of your skin, you are at a small risk of getting tetanus, because there is a lot of oxygen in that part of your body. But if you get a deeper wound, like one that would come from stepping on a nail or needle, you would be at a much higher risk of Tetanus infection, because there is less oxygen down in the fatty tissues if your body.
Tetanus comes from the toxins produced by the Clostridium tetani bacteria. When these bacteria are alive and growing in your body, they produce a poison called tetanospasm, which binds to the motor nerves that communicate with your muscles. This blocks or changes the flow of signals from you brain to your muscles, and causes the muscles to spasm (hence the name of the toxin). One of the most common places for tetanus spasms is in your jaw, (which is why the disease is sometimes know as lockjaw) but these muscle spasms can occur anywhere in your body. If the tetanospasm toxin breaks the nervous communications to your lungs or heart, death will occur within a few minutes.
The best way to prevent tetanus infection is to be vaccinated against it. In the U.S., tetanus vaccination is mandatory before starting school. Infants usually receive tetanus vaccination when they are 2 months old. Tetanus vaccination is administered in 5 stages, over the course of several years. In infants, this usually starts at 2 months and continues every 6 months or so until the kid is 4 or 5 years old. A booster shot is recommended every 10 years after the main vaccination, for adults and children alike. In the U.S., vaccination has decreased the number of deaths from tetanus infection to 40-50 a year. Most of these deaths occur in teenagers or adults who didn’t realize that they were past due for their booster shot. The worldwide average number of deaths by tetanus Infection is around 700,000 per year. You do not want to contribute to that number, so if at all possible, get vaccinated for tetanus, or Tdap (when it is combined with other vaccinations, too) and remember your booster shots!