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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

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