The notifiable disease hardly occurs in this country due to a vaccination and booster every ten years. However, individual cases have been reported since 2014, according to the ministry’s website.
Diphtheria is caused by poisons (toxins) of bacteria – Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The bacteria are transmitted by droplets and close contact. The incubation period of the disease is usually two to five days. The clinical picture can vary from a local infection (nose, throat, laryngeal diphtheria) to an infection of the respiratory tract to a severe toxic form (heart muscle, kidney, liver damage). Sufficiently vaccinated people can carry C. diphtheriae in the nose and throat and transmit it without becoming ill themselves. The disease is treated with antibiotics and antitoxins, the Ministry of Health informed.
The most effective way to prevent the disease and a severe course is vaccination. The basic immunization usually takes place in children as part of the six-fold vaccination with combination vaccines against diphtheria-tetanus-polio-pertussis-hepatitis B-haemophilus B. Three vaccinations in the third, fifth and eleventh to twelfth month of life are recommended. Combination vaccines containing components against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and possibly polio are recommended for persons over the age of six. The first booster vaccination is recommended in the seventh to ninth year of life, then every ten years or every five years from the age of 60.
According to the ministry, the two cases in Austria became known “in the past few days” as part of the reporting obligation. One person died as a result of the illness, the second is on the mend. Further laboratory diagnostic clarifications are in progress. “The local health authorities have taken the necessary measures and the two cases have been reported to the international health authorities,” said Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens).
Source: Nachrichten
