Cutaneous Diphtheria in Austria (ex Sri Lanka)

On 1 January 2016 ProMedMail reported a case of cutaneous diphtheria in a 60 year old Austrian man. The case presented to hospital in Austria on 22 December 2016 following his return from a month long holiday in Sri Lanka.

The man showed symptomatic signs of infection in tissues near his fingernail and several swabs tested positive for toxigenic corynebacterium diphtheriae. On the 30 December 2016, the World Health Organisation Global Reference Centre for Diphtheria and Streptococcal Infections at Public Health England confirmed the isolate as toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheria.

(Via ProMedMail– accessed 05/01/17)

Advice to Travellers

Ensure British Vaccination Schedule complete for all travellers including booster doses as teenagers.

Travellers should be aware of:

• persistence of disease in many regions of the world to which unvaccinated individuals are susceptible
• waning immunity from diphtheria vaccine with increasing age.

When to consider vaccination

Vaccination should be considered under the following circumstances and is dependent on the individual risk assessment:

• Individuals with an incomplete primary vaccination history for diphtheria, irrespective of region of travel.
• Ten-yearly boosters of vaccine should be given for travel to epidemic/endemic areas particularly where individuals will be mixing with the local population (e.g. health workers, teachers, volunteers).