摘要：Between 29 August 1981 and 16 January 1982, an epidemic of diphtheria produced 149 cases in Hodeida, Yemen Arab Republic. The overall attack rate was 11.8 per 10 000; the most frequent victims were males under 5 years of age, with an attack rate of 55.7 per 10 000. Severity of the illness varied inversely with age and the number of previous doses of DPT. A case—control study showed that vaccination with DPT was protective ( P = 0.03) with an efficacy of 87.3% (95% confidence interval, 32.2-99.5%) among those who had received 3 or more doses. Risk factors for the development of disease were previous contact with a case ( P = 0.002), previous contact with a person having skin disease ( P = 0.04), obtaining drinking-water from a wheeled carrier ( P = 0.008), and consumption of factory-made yoghurt ( P = 0.003). The secondary attack rate among household contacts under 15 years of age was at least 1.3%. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (847K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 287 288 289 290 291 292 293
