Tetanus cases among pregnant women and newborn children has fallen by 90% 

In the last two decades, the number of tetanus cases among pregnant women and newborns globally has dipped by nearly 90% and deaths from the bacterial disease in this population have fallen by 85%. Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, has between an 80%-100% fatality rate for neonates in areas where immunization is low and where babies could be born in contaminated facilities. In a new report, CDC researchers found that immunization rates for tetanus among women of reproductive age increased from 62% in 2000 to 72% by 2018. And as countries also worked to ensure that more babies were delivered by skilled birthing attendants, the deaths among neonates from tetanus dropped from around 170,000 in 2000 to fewer than 25,000 in 2018. However, around 47 million women and their babies are still unprotected from tetanus, the report finds, and will still need to be targeted through public health campaigns.