Volume 18, Number 2—February 2012
Research
Diphtheria in the Postepidemic Period, Europe, 2000–2009
, Joanne M. White, Irina Lucenko, David Mercer, Natasha S. Crowcroft, Shona Neal, Androulla Efstratiou, and on behalf of the Diphtheria Surveillance NetworkTable 3
Vaccination status of case-patients and clinical manifestations of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae infections and epidemiologically linked cases without laboratory confirmation, Latvia, Europe, 2000–2009*
| Vaccination status | Classic diphtheria (with membrane) | Mild diphtheria/ severe pharyngitis | Cutaneous | Asymptomatic | Not known | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 64† | 118 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 253 |
| Partial | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 9 |
| Unvaccinated | 74 | 70 | 1 | 18 | 0 | 163 |
| Not known | 2 | 8 | 0 | 63 | 210 | 283 |
| Total | 141 | 199 | 1 | 157 | 210 | 708 |
*p<0.001 by test for trend (vaccination status and disease severity).
†Includes 52 fully vaccinated case-patients with classic respiratory diphtheria (with membrane) from an outbreak in the military in 2000. The outbreak comprised 145 symptomatic case-patients and 25 asymptomatic contacts. A total of 96% of these case-patients and contacts were 18–23 years of age at the time of diagnosis. Spread of disease was traced to use of a communal drinking cup (13).
1Additional members of the Diphtheria Surveillance Network who contributed data are listed in Technical Appendix 1.
