Immunity to Diphtheria and Tetanus among Blood Donors in a Central Iranian City

Background:Tetanus and Diphtheria are vaccine-preventable, infectious diseases with significantmorbidity and mortality. Immunization by the diphtheria and tetanus toxoid (DT) has beenapplied in Iran for almost 50 years but there are very few data about the rate of immunity tothese diseases in the adult population. In this study, we investigated humoral immunity totetanus and diphtheria among blood donors in a Central Iranian cityPatients & Methods:A total of 530 consecutive blood donor samples collected from Blood TransfusionOrganization. All samples were tested for Diphteria and Tetanus IgG antibodies usingenzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISAResults:From 530 cases, 91.9% were male and 8.1% were female. 99.6% of cases had protectivelevels of diphtheria antibody. Protective levels of tetanus antibody were found in 96% ofsubjects. There was not any significant difference between diphtheria and tetanus antibodieslevels and age and sexConclusion:Our data showed that high proportion of the adult population in Arak city have sufficientprotection against diphtheria and tetanus. The high protective level of immunity to diphtheriaand tetanus in Iran can be due to widespread use of booster vaccines in Iranian high schoolsand during the military service or for pregnant women in their 3rd trimester.