Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors

Arne Aue; Holger Hennig; Sabine Krüger; Barbara Closius; Holger Kirchner; Michael Seyfarth

doi:10.1007/s00430-002-0163-9

Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors

Arne Aue, Holger Hennig^*, Sabine Krüger, Barbara Closius, Holger Kirchner, Michael Seyfarth

^*Corresponding author for this work

18 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Medical Microbiology and Immunology
Volume	192
Issue number	2
Pages (from-to)	93-97
Number of pages	5
ISSN	0300-8584
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-002-0163-9
Publication status	Published - 05.2003

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Academic Focus: Center for Infection and Inflammation Research (ZIEL)

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title = "Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors",

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.",

author = "Arne Aue and Holger Hennig and Sabine Kr{\"u}ger and Barbara Closius and Holger Kirchner and Michael Seyfarth",

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T1 - Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors

AU - Aue, Arne

AU - Hennig, Holger

AU - Krüger, Sabine

AU - Closius, Barbara

AU - Kirchner, Holger

AU - Seyfarth, Michael

PY - 2003/5

Y1 - 2003/5

N2 - 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.

AB - 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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SN - 0300-8584

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SP - 93

EP - 97

JO - Medical Microbiology and Immunology

JF - Medical Microbiology and Immunology

IS - 2

ER -

Immunity against diphtheria and tetanus in German blood donors

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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