When Will We See a Child With Diphtheria in the United States?
It's not just measles that we have to be concerned about...
Can you guess when we will see a child with diphtheria in the United States?
While endemic respiratory diphtheria was declared eliminated in 2009 in the United States, there have been a few isolated cases over the years.
There was an Ohio teenager in 2014 and a case in Oklahoma in 2018.
When Will We See a Child With Diphtheria in the United States?
And like measles, global cases of diphtheria are on the rise.
If you think that it is far-fetched that we will start to see diphtheria in the United States again, consider these recent cases:
an unvaccinated six-year-old child in Poland is in serious condition, fighting for his life, after being diagnosed with diphtheria after returning from a vacation in Zanzibar
an adult who had contact with the unvaccinated child is hospitalized in Poland with symptoms of diphtheria
a teenager in Townsville, on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, has been hospitalized with diphtheria. Fortunately, she was vaccinated and “wasn’t that sick,” but still required hospitalization. Of note, it is not clear if she was fully vaccinated, with a dose of Tdap that is typically given when kids enter Year 7 or the first year of secondary school in Australia when they are 12–13 years old.
an unvaccinated ten-year-old boy who attended a Waldorf school in Berlin, Germany died in January 2025, after spending nearly five months in the ICU
Not concerned by a few isolated cases?
You might be if you understood that cases of diphtheria are soaring in many parts of the world.
In Nigeria, since 2022, there have been 1,319 diphtheria deaths among about 42,642 suspected cases. And not surprisingly, almost all cases are in unvaccinated children.
There have also been recent outbreaks of diphtheria in Niger (ongoing), Guinea (ongoing), Chad, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Haiti, Indonesia, South Africa, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
Are you surprised?
You shouldn’t be.
Diphtheria Cases in Other Counties
Diphtheria is still endemic in many parts of the world, including:
Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Zambia and other countries of sub-Saharan Africa
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, and Paraguay
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
Will you be traveling any time soon, or will you be around someone who has traveled to one of these areas or has been around someone who has?
If you are, make sure that you are up-to-date on your vaccines, because diphtheria is highly contagious!
It is easily spread by coughing and sneezing, or even if you are simply talking to someone who is infected.
“Between 1 January 2024 and 9 March 2025, 31 confirmed cases of respiratory diphtheria and 38 asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic C. diphtheriae, detected during contact tracing, have been identified in South Africa. The majority of confirmed cases and carriers (93%, 64/69) were from the Western Cape, comprising 28 respiratory diphtheria cases and 36 asymptomatic carriers. The median age of cases of confirmed respiratory diphtheria was 31 years (range: 3–51 years), with 77% (24/31) aged over 18 years and the case-fatality ratio was 23% (7/31).”
Diphtheria Situational Report (Week 10 Of 2025). National Institute of Communicable Diseases
And the scary thing is, you might not know they are infected! Asymptomatic carriers of diphtheria can be infectious and spread it to others.
But what’s the worst thing about diphtheria?
Know that even with early treatment, diphtheria is fatal in about 4% of cases!
Oh, and it is easily prevented if you are fully vaccinated with the DTaP and Tdap vaccines.
References
Weekly Diphtheria Situation Report. As of 9th March 2025 (Epi-Week 10, 2025). Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Diphtheria. CDC Yellow Book 2024. Travel-Associated Infections & Diseases.
Diphtheria Situational Report (Week 10 Of 2025). National Institute of Communicable Diseases