Whole genome sequencing suggests transmission of Corynebacterium diphtheriae-caused cutaneous diphtheria in two siblings, Germany, 2018.

Anja Berger, Alexandra Dangel, Tilmann Schober, Birgit Schmidbauer, Regina Konrad, Durdica Marosevic, Sören Schubert, Stefan Hörmansdorfer, Nikolaus Ackermann, Johannes Hübner, Andreas Sing

Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin 2019 Jan

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In September 2018, a child who had returned from Somalia to Germany presented with cutaneous diphtheria by toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae biovar mitis. The child's sibling had superinfected insect bites harbouring also toxigenic C. diphtheriae. Next generation sequencing (NGS) revealed the same strain in both patients suggesting very recent human-to-human transmission. Epidemiological and NGS data suggest that the two cutaneous diphtheria cases constitute the first outbreak by toxigenic C. diphtheriae in Germany since the 1980s.

Citation

Anja Berger, Alexandra Dangel, Tilmann Schober, Birgit Schmidbauer, Regina Konrad, Durdica Marosevic, Sören Schubert, Stefan Hörmansdorfer, Nikolaus Ackermann, Johannes Hübner, Andreas Sing. Whole genome sequencing suggests transmission of Corynebacterium diphtheriae-caused cutaneous diphtheria in two siblings, Germany, 2018. Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin. 2019 Jan;24(2)