Learn bits
Health & Medicine
Pradeep Kumar

04/04/21 09:00 AM IST

Trends in diphtheria incidence

In news

Researchers from India, the U.K. and Russia have analysed a large collection of 502 genomes sourced from over 16 countries and collected from over a period of 122 years of the bacterium that causes diphtheria.

Diphtheria

  • It usually begins with angina (a type of chest pain) and tonsilitis symptoms, sore throat and mild fever.
  • The diphtheria toxin causes inflammation of heart muscle (myocarditis) and this can lead to death if not treated with diptheria antitoxin and proper antibiotics.
  • Formation of white-grey pseudomembrane over parts of the throat (pharynx) , voice box (larynx) and tonsils and swollen bull neck are considered stereotypical, although they may not show up in some cases.
Prevention

Diphtheria is a vaccine preventable disease – the toxoid vaccine elicits an immune response against the toxin which is encoded by a tox gene of the pathogen. Sometimes, spurts of diphtheria outbreaks occur in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated communities.

Genetic spread
  • In order to map out the genetic spread of the organism, the group has done a phylogenetic analysis that basically gives a picture of the family tree of the species.
  • These antimicrobial resistance genes might have been transferred by the mobile genetic elements from other bacteria.
Source: The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

17 Sep

Reasons Behind the heavy rain in Uttarakhand, Himachal

'Dehradun and several other districts in Uttarakhand have experienced very heavy rainfall over the past few days, triggering landslides in multiple areas and causing rivers to swel

Read More

08 Sep

Rajasthan’s coaching centre Bill

'The Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, is a significant piece of legislation passed by the Rajasthan Assembly to regulate and oversee the state's burg

Read More

28 Aug

IADT-1

'Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out its first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1), a crucial milestone in the preparation for the countr

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps