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Outbreak of imported diphtheria with Corynebacterium diphtheriae among migrants arriving in Germany, 2022
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Franziska Badenschier1,2,*
, Anja Berger3,4,* , Alexandra Dangel5
, Annika Sprenger5 , Bernhard Hobmaier4
, Claudia Sievers1,2,6 , Henrieke Prins6,7
, Achim Dörre6
, Christiane Wagner-Wiening8
, Wiebe Külper-Schiek6 , Ole Wichmann6
, Andreas Sing3
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Postgraduate Training for Applied Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Berlin, Germany 2 ECDC Fellowship Programme, EPIET Associated Programme, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden 3 National Consiliary Laboratory for Diphtheria, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleißheim, Germany 4 Unit of Bacteriology, Public Health Microbiology, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL), Oberschleißheim, Germany 5 NGS Core Unit, Public Health Microbiology, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL), Oberschleißheim, Germany 6 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany 7 ECDC Fellowship Programme, Field Epidemiology path (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden 8 State Health Office Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart, Germany* These authors contributed equally to this article and share first authorship.Correspondence:Franziska Badenschierbadenschierf rki.de
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Citation style for this article: Badenschier Franziska, Berger Anja, Dangel Alexandra, Sprenger Annika, Hobmaier Bernhard, Sievers Claudia, Prins Henrieke, Dörre Achim, Wagner-Wiening Christiane, Külper-Schiek Wiebe, Wichmann Ole, Sing Andreas. Outbreak of imported diphtheria with Corynebacterium diphtheriae among migrants arriving in Germany, 2022. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(46):pii=2200849. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.46.2200849 Received: 03 Nov 2022; Accepted: 17 Nov 2022
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Abstract
From July 2022, cases of imported diphtheria with toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae remarkably increased among migrants arriving in Germany. Up to 30 September 2022, 44 cases have been reported to the national public health institute, all laboratory-confirmed, male, and mainly coming from Syria (n = 21) and Afghanistan (n = 17). Phylogeny and available journey information indicate that most cases (n = 19) were infected along the Balkan route. Active case finding, increased laboratory preparedness and epicentre localisation in countries along this route are important.

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