speaking of coalminers and communicable diseases......

In 2007 I had a sick cat that didn't respond well to treatment so they cultured her and she was positive for diphtheria. This was remarkable because diphtheria was previously unknown in felines. She was the first cat in the world to be diagnosed with it. So since it is such a serious disease the CDC got involved and 2 veterinarians and a physician from the CDC came to my farm and cultured all the cats, dogs, horse and my son and me. It turned out I had a second cat with a positive culture and the CDC was clueless as to how the bacteria had infected the cats.

Diphtheria is still prevalent in places like Russia where they cannot afford to provide vaccine but is virtually nonexistent in the USA. But I learned that from 2000 to that time in 2007 there had been seven reported cases of diphtheria among humans in the USA and ALL of those had been WV coalminers. What gives? Why here?

So manicminer if your tetanus shots are not up to date (longer than seven years ago) you should get a tetanus shot because what they don't tell you when you get the tetanus shot is that they are vaccinating you for diphtheria in the same injection.