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Case Reports
. 2019 Jan;24(2):1800683.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.2.1800683.

Whole genome sequencing suggests transmission of Corynebacterium diphtheriae-caused cutaneous diphtheria in two siblings, Germany, 2018

Anja Berger  1   2   3 , Alexandra Dangel  2   3 , Tilmann Schober  3   4 , Birgit Schmidbauer  5 , Regina Konrad  1   2 , Durdica Marosevic  2 , Sören Schubert  6 , Stefan Hörmansdorfer  2 , Nikolaus Ackermann  2 , Johannes Hübner  4   3 , Andreas Sing  1   2   3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Whole genome sequencing suggests transmission of Corynebacterium diphtheriae-caused cutaneous diphtheria in two siblings, Germany, 2018

Anja Berger et al. Euro Surveill. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

In September 2018, a child who had returned from Somalia to Germany presented with cutaneous diphtheria by toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae biovar mitis. The child's sibling had superinfected insect bites harbouring also toxigenic C. diphtheriae. Next generation sequencing (NGS) revealed the same strain in both patients suggesting very recent human-to-human transmission. Epidemiological and NGS data suggest that the two cutaneous diphtheria cases constitute the first outbreak by toxigenic C. diphtheriae in Germany since the 1980s.

Keywords: Corynebacterium diphtheriae; MLST; WGS; diphtheria; outbreak; toxigenic; typing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Minimum spanning tree based on next generation sequencing-derived allelic profilesa of Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains, to investigate two isolates from siblings with cutaneous diphtheria who had travelled to Somalia, Germany, 2018 (n = 23 isolates)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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