Diphtheria is a severe infection caused in humans by toxigenic strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacteria. If left untreated, it leads to death in 5 to 25% of cases. It generally affects the upper respiratory tracts, causing pseudomembrane formation and sometimes leading to suffocation. The infection can be complicated by systemic symptoms caused by the diphtheria toxin. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur joined forces with Yemeni doctors and scientists to shed light on the current outbreak in Yemen.
Ongoing diphtheria outbreak in Yemen: Epidemiological, clinical and genomic insights, The Lancet Microbe, 26 mai 2021
Edgar Badell1,2, Abdulilah Alharazi3, Alexis Criscuolo4, The NCPHL diphtheria outbreak working group#, Khaled Abdullah Ali Almoayed13, Noémie Lefrancq5, Valerie Bouchez1, Julien Guglielmini4, Melanie Hennart1,6, Annick Carmi-Leroy1,2, Nora Zidane1, Marine Pascal-Perrigault1, Manon Lebreton1, Helena Martini7, Henrik Salje5,8, Julie Toubiana1,2,9, Fekri Dureab10,11, Ghulam Dhabaan12,* and Sylvain Brisse1,2,*
#The NCPHL diphtheria outbreak working group: Abdulaziz A. Rawah, Mohammed A. Aldawla, kram M. Al-Awdi, Nabila M. Al-Moalmy, Huda Z. Al-Shami, Ali A. Al-Somainy
1 Institut Pasteur, Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens, Paris, France
2 Institut Pasteur, National Reference Center for Corynebacteria of the diphtheriae complex, Paris, F-75724, France
3 National Centre of the Public Health Laboratories (NCPHL), Sana’a, Yemen
4 Hub de Bioinformatique et Biostatistique ‒ Département Biologie Computationnelle, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
5 Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
6 Sorbonne Université, Collège doctoral, Paris, France
7 Department of Microbiology, National Reference Centre for toxigenic corynebacteria, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 101, Brussels, Belgium
8 Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
9 Université de Paris, General Paediatrics and Paediatric Infectious Diseases Department, Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, APHP, Paris, France
10 Institute for Research in International Assistance, Akkon Hochschule, Berlin, Germany
11 Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg, Germany
12 Mount Sinai Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
13 Department of Diseases Control and Surveillance, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Sana’a, Yemen