Diphtheria is highly contagious, but most children in the Netherlands are protected by vaccinations. This bacterial infection can make young babies very ill. Symptoms usually start 2 to 5 days after exposure.
Diphteria in summary
| How does the bacteria spread? | Through coughing or by touching infected people, pets and animals, or from contaminated food or unpasteurised milk |
|---|---|
| Common symptoms | Nasal cold, open sores |
| Serious symptoms | Damage to lungs, heart, kidney, possible death |
| Which vaccinations protect against this disease? | DTaP-IPV - Hib - HBV vaccination, DTaP-IPV vaccination, DT-IPV vaccination, DTaP vaccination (maternal whooping cough vaccination or 22-week vaccination) |
Symptoms of diphtheria
How seriously ill you are depends on 2 things:
- The location of the bacteria in your body.
- How much toxin is released by the bacteria.
If the bacteria are only in your nose, you usually will only have minor symptoms. If the diphtheria is in your skin, you will get open sores. If the bacteria is in your throat, airways or lungs, you may have shortness of breath and could even die as a result. This is more likely to happen in young children and older people.
How does diphtheria spread?
Anyone who has not been vaccinated can get diphtheria. Young babies and older people have the highest risk of becoming seriously ill. Dogs, cats, cows, horses, goats and sheep can also get diphtheria. Humans can get it through:
- contact with pets or farm animals
- drinking raw milk
- coughing and sneezing;
- kissing an infected person
- skin contact with an infected wound.
Vaccination can protect you against diphtheria. Read more about how vaccination works or about the vaccinations against diphtheria:
A person with diphtheria needs to go to hospital for treatment. You will often be treated with antibiotics and an antitoxin for the bacteria. If the doctor thinks it is a diphtheria infection of the throat, airways or lungs, treatment is started immediately. Otherwise you might develop other serious symptoms. That could include:
- difficulty breathing;
- inflammation of the heart muscle, causing your heart to stop working properly;
- nerve damage that can affect respiratory muscles and/or arm or leg muscles, causing your muscles to lose strength;
- risk of permanent damage to the heart, lungs or kidneys.
With treatment, most people survive these effects. Fully vaccinated people almost never die of diphtheria.
Diphtheria is now rare in the Netherlands. Sometimes people get diphtheria when they are travelling internationally. Before diphtheria vaccinations began in 1953, about 2,700–3,000 people in the Netherlands got diphtheria every year. This has significantly decreased since we started vaccinating children against diphtheria, dropping to under 5 people a year. There have been no reported deaths from diphtheria in the Netherlands since 1994.