What is Diphtheria? Symptoms, prevention and treatment of contagious disease
The recent death of a three-year-old child in Ferozepur, Punjab, due to diphtheria prompted an immediate response from health authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) to contain the outbreak. According to reports, eight teams from the Health Department and a WHO team have been conducting continuous surveys in the area.
What is Diphtheria?
According to the WHO, diphtheria is a contagious disease caused by toxin-producing bacteria. The bacterial infection affects the upper respiratory tract and can spread throughout the body. It also produces a toxin that damages the heart and the nerves. It is a vaccine-preventable disease, but repeated doses and booster doses are required to produce and sustain immunity.
Those not immunised or under-immunised are at risk of contracting the disease. It can be fatal in around 30% of the cases for unvaccinated individuals, without proper treatment, with young children at higher risk of dying. Any non-immune person can become infected with the disease.
WHO reported that inadequate vaccine coverage has resulted in diphtheria outbreaks in recent years. To combat these outbreaks, the organisation collaborated with member states on outbreak response and routine immunisation programmes to boost and sustain immunisation coverage and prevent diphtheria infections and deaths.
Symptoms:
The disease is characterised by common symptoms that include:
Fever
Sore throat
Swelling of the neck glands
Fatigue
Shortness of breath
Weakness
Treatment
If proper treatment is administered early in the course of the illness, the risk of complications or death is significantly reduced. As a result, if diphtheria is suspected, testing to confirm the disease should be performed immediately, and treatment should begin as soon as possible.
It can be treated with diphtheria antitoxin as well as antibiotics. The antitoxin neutralises the circulation toxin in the blood while the antibiotics stop bacterial replication and thereby toxin production, speed up getting rid of the bacteria, and prevent transmission to others.
Anyone who has had diphtheria should also get vaccinated once the acute phase of the illness is over. Individuals who have come into contact with cases of diphtheria should be treated with antibiotics prophylactically to prevent the illness. The immunisation status of all contacts should also be examined. If they have not been fully vaccinated, they should be administered the vaccine.
Prevention
The illness can be prevented by vaccines often given in combination with tetanus, pertussis and other diseases. WHO advises administering six diphtheria-containing vaccine doses beginning at six weeks of age through adolescence to offer long-term protection.
The best way to prevent diphtheria is to provide community-wide vaccination with high coverage as part of routine immunisation services embedded in primary health care. All children should receive a full primary series of diphtheria vaccinations, as well as three subsequent booster doses, for long-term protection.
The vaccine is most often combined with vaccines for diseases like Hemophilus influenzae, hepatitis B, tetanus, pertussis, and inactivated polio.
Source: cnbctv18
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