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Europe suffers its largest diphtheria outbreak in 70 years
- In 2022, the largest diphtheria outbreak in Western Europe in seven decades emerged primarily within migrant communities across several countries.
- The epidemic resulted from contamination during migratory travel or in European reception settings, not from migrants' countries of origin.
- In 2023, the outbreak extended to additional at-risk populations, with 123 confirmed cases documented across several European nations including Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
- Since the beginning of 2022, Europe has experienced 536 reported cases and at least three fatalities, with the vast majority of those affected being young males—primarily recent migrants—having a median age of 18.
- Experts emphasize strengthening surveillance, vaccination, and healthcare access for vulnerable populations, noting the importance of cross-border data sharing.
26 Articles
26 Articles
The long-forgotten disease is back: Africa records the most severe diphtheria outbreak in history. In Germany, too, infections have increased to low NIveau.
This highly contagious bacterial infection can attack the respiratory tract or the skin, with sometimes fatal forms. A study by the Institut Pasteur et Santé publique France reveals that migrants and homeless people are particularly affected.
Recent diphtheria epidemic in Western Europe traced to migration routes, not countries of origin
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that the largest diphtheria epidemic in Western Europe for 70 years, which broke out in 2022 among migrants and in 2023 spread to other vulnerable populations in several European countries, is the result of contaminations occurring during migratory travel or in destination European countries, and not in the countries of origin.
Experts are sounding the alarm – Europe is no longer recording isolated cases of diphtheria, but outbreaks and even deaths. Although this disease was recently considered known only from textbooks, the danger from it is getting closer and closer to Lithuania. Although the last time diphtheria was detected in Lithuania was in 2011, it is warned that the threat of this infection is not that far away.
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