Orange with 6Medias, published on Friday, April 14, 2023 at 11:54 am
Diphtheria, a disease annihilated in Europe for a century, is making a comeback. If we cannot speak of an epidemic, several cases have been identified on the Old Continent in 2022, reports Le Parisien.
Eradicated since 1923 and the appearance of a vaccine, diphtheria is making a comeback in Europe a century later.
At the end of 2022, several cases were identified across European countries such as Germany (118 cases), Austria (69) and France (30), according to The ParisianFriday, April 14.
The scientists nevertheless want to be reassuring about a possible generalization of the disease. “We cannot speak of an epidemic. These are imported cases, observed in migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Syria. There has been no transmission in the European population”, assures Sylvain Brisse, director of the national reference center for diphtheria at the Institut Pasteur. If the source of the contamination is known, it is impossible to know if the people affected have caught the virus in their country of origin or in their host country.
3,000 dead between 1940 and 1945
Between 1940 and 1945, an epidemic of diphtheria killed 3,000 people in France, according to the Montpellier University Hospital. Today, the most common form of this disease is manifested by skin infections and is much less serious, although more difficult to detect, the daily recalls.
In addition, since this resurgence of infection at the end of 2022, no other case has been diagnosed. Scientists, however, prefer to remain cautious by ensuring that the wave can start again. “A disease can always reappear from another corner of the world. Let’s never forget that germs know no borders”, warns Sylvain Brisse. In France, 98% of the population is immune to this disease, the vaccine for which has been compulsory since 2018.