Need for jabs stressed after diphtheria death
Medical experts on Friday underlined the importance of vaccinations after the National Health Organization (EODY) confirmed that the death of an 8-year-old boy in the intensive care unit of the Athens General Children’s Hospital last week was caused by diphtheria, a disease thought to have been eradicated in Greece almost three decades ago.
EODY had expressed fears last week that the boy’s death was the result of diphtheria and had asked the United Kingdom’s Public Health England agency to confirm whether that was indeed the case, which it did, as EODY said in a statement late on Thursday.
Theano Georgakopoulou, head of EODY’s epidimiology department, described the case as “extremely unusual,” as the 8-year-old had received all the necessary shots, and said it was important for both adults and children to be vaccinated against diphtheria.
