Routine Care & Wellness
Diptheria
Diphtheria is an acute bacterial disease that usually affects the tonsils, throat, nose, and/or skin. It is passed from person to person through droplet infection or by breathing in the diphtheria bacteria after an infected person has coughed, sneezed or even laughed. It can also be spread by handling used tissue or by drinking from a glass used by an infected person. Diphtheria can lead to breathing problems, heart failure, paralysis, and sometimes death.
Prevention
There is a vaccine for diphtheria. Most people receive their first vaccine as children in the form of a combined diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, or DTP.
For adults, a combination shot, called a Td booster, protects against both tetanus and diphtheria. It should be administered once every 10 years after age 7 to maintain immunity.
Symptoms
In its early stages, diphtheria may be mistaken for a severe sore throat. Other symptoms include a low-grade fever and enlarged lymph nodes located in the neck. A second form of diphtheria causes skin lesions that may be painful, red, and swollen. Symptoms usually appear 2 to 4 days after infection, with a range of 1 to 6 days. People carrying diphtheria organisms are infectious up to 4 weeks even if they themselves do not develop symptoms.
Vaccine Safety
Tetanus-diphtheria vaccine is very safe. Very few people experience any side effects. When side effects do occur, they are usually soreness, redness or swelling at the injection site, and a slight fever. As with any medicine, there are very small risks those serious problems, even death, could occur after getting a vaccine. However, the risks from the disease are much greater than the risks from the vaccine. You cannot get diphtheria from the vaccine.
Who should get Td vaccine?
All unvaccinated or inadequately vaccinated people.
FACTS ABOUT DIPTHERIA
- One out of every 10 people who get diphtheria will die from it.
- Diphtheria can be prevented with a safe and effective vaccine.
- Of adults in the United States, 20% or more may be unprotected against diphtheria.
- Lasting immunity does not always follow recovery from diphtheria.
- You cannot get diphtheria from the vaccine.
- For most adults, a tetanus-diphtheria (Td) shot every 10 years helps ensure protection against these two diseases.
- Diphtheria is transmitted to others through close contact with discharges from an infected person's nose, throat, eyes, and/or skin lesions.
- An ongoing epidemic of diphtheria in Eastern Europe and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union has resulted in 5,000 deaths since 1990.
- Most cases of diphtheria occur among unvaccinated or inadequately vaccinated people.
- Diphtheria can lead to breathing problems, heart failure, paralysis, and sometimes death.
These facts about diptheria are courtesy of the
National Coalition of Adult Immunization
to reach their organization, please click here for more information.
