
Ask HN: Why UNICEF is giving tetanus shots to young women - tetanusshot
I received this morning a voice message from my 20 years old sister, and from her voice and message, she is clearly worried. A couple of days ago she received a vaccination at school from agents of Unicef, a tetanus vaccine supposedly. The vaccine was only administered to females aged 15 and higher. Her school is not the first one, tens of thousands of young women are receiving these shots for reasons unclear. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong, but it&#x27;s really curious to me that a tetanus vaccine would only benefit women? These shots are being administered without any parental consent to teenagers without any explanations. This is clearly wrong and shocking. This makes me realize that due process is only relevant for these NGOs if you live in countries where citizens are properly represented.<p>I am writing this to try and see if anyone here has a good understanding of tetanus and could help understand. Why would a tetanus shot be only administered to young women?<p>I have always been myself an advocate for vaccination and know for a fact that most conspiracy theories are just that, theories. I would love to be able to call my sister and as usual, tell her that she shouldn&#x27;t believe everything she reads on the internet.<p>Why I am posting this here?
HN is one of the most diverse fora in terms of background, and I believe, having been a reader for a decade, that most people here care about the truth, and spreading it.<p>For obvious reasons, I am posting this from a newly created account.
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username90
UNICEF made a statement here:

[http://who.insomnation.com/sites/default/files/pdf/who-
unice...](http://who.insomnation.com/sites/default/files/pdf/who-unicef-joint-
tt-statement.pdf)

Apparently they target women in fertile age (15-49) because newborns often die
when being born with it.

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tetanusshot
This is helpful and provides somewhere for me to start looking. It is very
disappointing that organizations of the pro-eminence of UNICEF would engage in
mass vaccination campaigns and not follow the due diligence. Someone is
administering vaccine to minors without parental consent.

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gus_massa
If your sister is 20 years old, I'm not sure if it's necessary to get parental
consent for a medical treatment. (Probably she can't buy alcohol (legally).)
They need her consent anyway.

Also, this is a very common vaccine, and (at least here in Argentina) pregnant
women get it regularly in the third month of pregnancy.

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tetanusshot
She sure is, but plenty of young women receiving these vaccines are not.

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mtmail
Sound more like
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella)
to me. In my school only girls received it. "It is recommended that all
susceptible non-pregnant women of childbearing age should be offered rubella
vaccination."

All second guessing. Contacting UNICEF might be advised.

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yesenadam
Where are you?

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tetanusshot
I am in Guinea.

