A public health incident management team was established after the bacteria was detected from a 19-year-old man who had been living in an IPAS facility for around two years.
An IPAS centre was plunged into lockdown after a resident tested positive for diphtheria.
It marked only the third case of the deadly bacterial infection in Ireland since 1967. A public health incident management team sprang into action when the bacteria was found in a throat swab from a 19-year-old East African man, who had been residing at an IPAS facility for about two years. He sought help from his GP with a sore throat three days prior, where a grey membrane typical of diphtheria was spotted in his respiratory tract.
Hospitalised for treatment, the patient received diphtheria anti-toxin and IV antibiotics.
The IPAS centre halted admissions and isolated anyone with respiratory symptoms.
A vaccination clinic was set up on-site, yet only a third of residents agreed to be vaccinated.
The public health squad initiated contact tracing and planned a site visit to the patient’s workplace to seek the infection’s origin.
This month’s Irish Medical Journal includes a case report highlighting the “crowded” conditions at the centre and its failure to meet standard infection prevention control guidelines, reports Dublin Live.
The report also pointed out the challenge of communicating with the centre’s 198 residents, who hailed from various countries and spoke multiple languages. Translated information on diphtheria was circulated within the centre.
The bacteria was identified as non-toxigenic three days after the infection was reported. This marked only the third case of diphtheria in Ireland since 1967, with the previous two cases recorded in 2015 and 2016.
The bacteria was largely eradicated in the country following the introduction of a vaccine as far back as the 1930s, but it remains a significant public health issue in some parts of the globe.
Diphtheria can be deadly, with up to one in 10 patients succumbing to the disease, even with appropriate treatment. Symptoms include a bluish-white or grey membrane in the throat and on the tonsils, which may bleed and turn greyish-green or black.
Patients can develop severe weakness and die within 10 days.
Severe diphtheria can cause a swollen neck and airway obstruction in patients. The toxin produced by the bacteria can also affect the heart and nervous system, leading to paralysis and cardiac failure.
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