Date:07/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/07/stories/2008050759400300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Diphtheria: preventive measures launched

Staff Reporter

Immunisation camp organised at affected areas

Medical team visits
Kottoor-Valipara
tribal settlement
None of the children shows symptoms
of diphtheria

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district administration has launched public health measures in the Kottoor-Valipara tribal settlement, near Vellanad in the district, following the death of a seven-year-old child due to laryngeal diphtheria.

A team of doctors from the Medical College Hospital (MCH), including microbiologists and a medical team from the district, visited the area on Tuesday. An immunisation camp was held where all children in the susceptible age group of 5-10 years were given extra booster shots of the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine.

There are about 35 children in the settlement. While it is believed that all of them have completed the routine immunisation shots, proper records were not available. Though none of the children nor adults in the family of the deceased child seemed to show any outward symptoms of diphtheria, the infection can always be present in a mild sub-clinical form of respiratory infection.

Health officials have taken the throat swabs of 27 persons, including the family members and close relatives of the deceased child, and send these for culture studies.

Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease. Under routine immunisation, children are given three shots of the vaccine by the age of one and then three booster shots at 18 months, five years and during school years.

It presents as a respiratory infection with sore throat at first and spreads through the air when the infected persons coughs or sneezes. A grey-black membrane is formed in the throat, which can block the airways, which can be easily identified on examining the throat.

Diphtheria can be fatal because once infected, the dangerous toxins released by the bacteria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae) can spread through the blood stream and cause significant damage to the heart, nervous system or the kidneys. Even if the person recovers from the disease, some permanent damage can result.

It was important that the DPT vaccine and all its booster shots were administered to children, health officials said.