Behind this is a bacterial infectious disease that can affect both your throat mucous membranes and your skin. The diphtheria bacterium is widespread worldwide and you can transmit it mainly through droplet infection when sneezing, coughing or talking. If the throat is infected, the result is a sore throat and firmly adhering plaques in the throat (so-called pharyngeal diphtheria), and in the worst case, death by suffocation. In addition, the poison of the diphtheria bacterium can cause organ damage such as heart inflammation or nerve paralysis. If you have hardly heard anything about diphtheria so far, it is probably because the disease is one of the rare diseases due to the good vaccination rate in our country.
These vaccinations are relevant for every age group.
The build-up of vaccination protection against diptheria (basic immunization) usually takes place in childhood.
Booster vaccinations for adults with complete basic immunisation should be given every 10 years. This is usually done in combination with tetanus, and possibly also with pertussis and polio.
The diptheria vaccination is an inactivated vaccine and is usually administered as a combination vaccination.
The vaccination is given in the upper arm muscle.
The vaccination is well tolerated. Very often, the stimulation of the body's own defences causes redness or swelling at the injection site, which may also hurt. Rarely, general symptoms such as an increase in temperature, chills, fatigue, muscle aches or gastrointestinal complaints may occur in the first three days after vaccination. Such vaccination reactions usually subside after one to three days.
To check whether you have been vaccinated, simply make an appointment for a vaccination status check at one of our Avi Medical practices and talk to our medical team. They will advise you in detail whether you are already protected or whether you should receive a vaccination. The doctors will also check whether there are other vaccinations that would be useful for you and will carry these out directly if necessary.
