Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus: Priority Countries
Since 1999, 51 countries have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) — an excruciating disease that kills tens of thousands of infants each year
UNICEF and its partners have immunized more than 161 million women all over the globe, protecting them and their babies, helping to eliminate MNT in 51 out of 59 countries at high risk for the disease since 1999, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, the Philippines, Sudan and South Sudan.
MNT remains a public health threat in these eight countries:
- Afghanistan
- Angola
- Central African Republic
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Somalia
- Yemen
Unlike other vaccine-preventable diseases, MNT is considered eliminated when there is an annual rate of less than one case of neonatal tetanus per 1,000 live births at the district level. Tetanus is not passed from person to person, but through exposure to Clostridium tetani, a common bacterium that exists throughout the environment in soil and animal feces.
