01/23/2024

Why Diphtheria is Making a Comeback

As of December 2023, there were 25,000 case in West Africa

It had been more than 30 years since the last case of diphtheria was seen in Guinea. So, when patients began showing up six months ago with what looked like flu symptoms — fever, cough and sore throat – doctors weren't alarmed. Until the children started dying.

That's when they realized that this longtime scourge, long quashed by vaccination, was back.

As of December 2023, there have been around 25,000 cases of diphtheria in West Africa and 800 deaths. In Guinea, the cases were clustered in Siguiri, a rural prefecture in the country's northeast, and early data showed that 90 percent occurred in children under the age of 5.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.