Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors.
Med Microbiol Immunol
; 192(2): 93-7, 2003 May.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-12736822
ABSTRACT
After the recent diphtheria epidemics in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, we re-evaluated the diphtheria and tetanus immunity of 321 German blood donors (192 men and 129 women). The mean antitoxin levels of all blood donors in this study, measured by commercial ELISA, revealed a questionable protection (0.1-1.0 IU/ml) against diphtheria. In 1994, 66.4% were without immunity against diphtheria (55.0% in 1997/98), 32.1% (41.5% in 1997/98) showed questionable protection and only 1.5% (3.5% in 1997/98) had protective antitoxin levels. The evaluation of tetanus immunity revealed only 0.5% (1.1% in 1997/98) of the subjects with no protection and 9.1% (8.5% in 1997/98) with questionable protection. For this reason, we conclude that the diphtheria epidemics only lead to an insufficient improvement of the immunization status in a healthy German population.
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Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Tétanos
/
Donantes de Sangre
/
Difteria
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Med Microbiol Immunol
Año:
2003
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Alemania