Tetanus immunisation status in the adult population: Investigation of IgG levels Erişkin popülasyonda tetanoz bağışıklık durumu: IgG düzeylerinin incelenmesi

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Ezer B., Çitfci H. S., Uygun T., Özdemir M.

Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi, cilt.82, sa.4, ss.557-564, 2025 (Scopus, TRDizin)

Özet

Objective: Tetanus is a vaccine-preventable disease; however, approximately one million new cases of tetanus are reported worldwide each year. As a result of successful vaccination policies in developed countries, tetanus cases are observed in individuals who are not vaccinated or who have not completed the vaccination schedule. The aim of this study is to determine the quantitative tetanus antibody levels in patients admitted to our hospital and to analyse the correlation between age, sex and antibody levels. Methods: The study included the serum of 408 adult patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to the outpatient clinics and services of our hospital between 01/01/2022 and 06/08/2024. Tetanus IgG antibody levels were quantitatively determined using the VIRCLIA ELISA device (Vircell, Spain) using the Tetanus VIRCLIA® IgG ELISA kit (Vircell, Spain) in the serum of patients arriving at our medical microbiology laboratory. The data analyzed with the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 20.0 package program. The conformity of the numerical data to the normal distribution was examined by visual (histogram) and analytical methods (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Mann Whitney U test was performed for pairwise comparisons in groups with significant differences between them. The statistical significance level for all tests was accepted as p<0,05. Results: The mean ± standard deviation values of the ages of the adults included in the study were determined as 40.07±15.10. 233 (57.1%) of patients were female. In our study, non-protective tetanus antibody levels of <0.1 IU/mL were detected in 25 adults (6.1%) and protective tetanus antibody levels of ≥0.1 IU/mL were detected in 383 adults (93.9%). The median tetanus antibody level was 1.12 IU/mL in men and 0.99 IU/mL in women. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the sexes (p>0,447). A negative correlation was found between age and antibody level above 40 years of age (r=-0,334; p=0,001). Conclusion: In our study, lower tetanus antibody levels were found in older ages, and antibody monitoring should be performed at older ages and a tetanus booster dose should be administered if necessary.