[teacozy]

http://m.northernstar.com.au/news/woman-contracts-diptheria-at-recent-doof-party/2987999/

How scary for this woman and her family, especially since the last woman who caught Diphtheria in Australia several years ago sadly died. This woman caught it at a festival, likely from an international traveller the article says.

An unvaccinated toddler in Belgium died a couple weeks ago from Diphtheria, and of course the little 7 year old unvaccinated boy from Spain. A truly terrifying disease.

 

[japonica]

When I first read the title I thought, "That's one unlucky woman!"

There was another story in the past few months of an individual in Australia who contracted it while abroad in Asia. The traveller had been fully vaccinated, but was treated with antibiotics, and deemed not to be a risk to the community (given the lack of press about it...I only found out while digging through the notifiable disease reports). Seems like the common denominator is travel abroad or contatct with people who are from endemic areas and are presumably carrying the bacteria.

Edited to add: did find a single media story on it. Just cutaneous diphtheria, but still, not a souvenir you'd like to bring back from your holiday abroad.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/02/11/qld-patient-infected-diphtheria-germ

 

[sciencemum]

At least these are isolated cases which confirms the immunity from the vaccine is working well.

Very sad for the people involved though.

 

[japonica]

At least these are isolated cases which confirms the immunity from the vaccine is working well.

Very sad for the people involved though.

Yes, I guess one of the additional lessons is the one about carriage for fully vaccinated folks as well. I remember that from the original diphtheria case in Queensland where the fatality was the unvaccinated friend of the person who came back from overseas and apparently passed the bacteria on. Something for people whose antitoxin levels are not optimal, like many people who have not had a booster since childhood, to keep in mind. I'm actually surprised there aren't more cases given the studies showing low antitoxin levels by middle age for most Australians and the Aussie love of travel to endemic areas in Asia.