Vaccines and Preventable Diseases:
Diphtheria Vaccination
Pronounced (dif-THEER-ee-a)
What You Should Know:
For Health Professionals:
For the Media:
What You Should Know
- Brief description
Symptoms, treatment, transmission, etc. - About diphtheria and diphtheria vaccination UPDATED
Parent's Guide to Childhood Immunization (screen-reader version) - Pictures of Diphtheria
Warning: Some of these photos are quite graphic. - Travelers information
Information and updates on risks for travelers, precautions, prevention, etc.
Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis Vaccines
There are four combination vaccines used to prevent diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis: DTaP, Tdap, DT, and Td. Two of these (DTaP and DT) are given to children younger than 7 years of age, and two (Tdap and Td) are given to older children and adults.
Children should get 5 doses of DTaP, one dose at each of the following ages: 2, 4, 6, and 15-18 months and 4-6 years. DT does not contain pertussis, and is used as a substitute for DTaP for children who cannot tolerate pertussis vaccine.
Td is a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine given to adolescents and adults as a booster shot every 10 years, or after an exposure to tetanus under some circumstances. Tdap is similar to Td but also containing protection against pertussis. A single dose of Tdap is recommended for adolescents 11 or 12 years of age, or in place of one Td booster in older adolescents and adults age 19 through 64.
(Upper-case letters in these abbreviations denote full-strength doses of diphtheria (D) and tetanus (T) toxoids and pertussis (P) vaccine. Lower-case “d” and “p” denote reduced doses of diphtheria and pertussis used in the adolescent/adult-formulations. The “a” in DTaP and Tdap stands for “acellular,” meaning that the pertussis component contains only a part of the pertussis organism.)- As an adult, do I need this vaccine?
(19 years and older) - Side Effects
- Precautions,
side-effects, and combination vaccines
Parents Guide to Immunizations (screen-reader version) - Vaccine
Information Statement (VIS) (Td, DTaP, and Tdap)
(DTP is no longer used in the United States) - Questions
and Answers (exit)
about the various vaccines (DT, DTaP, Td, Tdap) - State Vaccine Requirements
Includes school vaccine requirements - Travelers information
Information and updates on risks, precautions, etc.
- SIDS Not Linked
to Number & Variety of Childhood Vaccines (exit)
Institute of Medicine report - Febrile Seizures After MMR and DTP Vaccinations
- Additives in Vaccines
As with all vaccines, there can be minor reactions, including pain and redness at the injection site, headache, fatigue or a vague feeling of discomfort.
- What if we stopped vaccinating for this disease?
- Who should not be vaccinated with Diphtheria vaccine?
- See Pregnancy section below.
For Health Professionals
Clinical
- Technical
information
Clinical Features, Etiologic Agent, Incidence, Complications, Transmission, Risk Groups, Surveillance, Trends, Challenges, etc. - Ask
the Experts (exit)
CDC experts (medial officers, medical epidemiologists, etc.) - Treatment: Diphtheria Antitoxin
Diphtheria Antitoxin (DAT) is not licensed by the FDA for use in the U.S. CDC is authorized to distribute DAT to physicians as an Investigational New Drug. - Proper handling of Dt, Td, DTaP, DTaP/Hib, DTaP/Hepb/IPV, Tdap vaccines
- Immunization of Healthcare Workers
- Pediarix vaccine: questions and answers
- Tdap vaccine: recommendations, press release, etc.
- NIPINFO answers your questions about Dtap, Td, and DT
- NIPINFO answers your questions about Pediarix
Recommendations
- ACIP recommendations
- Diphtheria official recommendations (exit)
- Healthcare Personnel Vaccination Recommendations (exit) July 28
- More MMWRs on DTaP
- Contraindications
- Standing Orders (exit)
- VFC resolution regarding DTaP vaccine
- Pregnancy
- Prevention of Diphtheria Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women and their Infants May 14
ACIP Recommendations - MMWR: May 14, 2008 / 57(Early Release);1-47 - Pregnancy guidelines (Td)
- Pregnancy guidelines (Tdap)
- Prevention of Diphtheria Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women and their Infants May 14
- Vaccines for Children Program (VFC)
- Tdap memo to VFC providers
Memo to Vaccine for Children providers about Tdap - ACIP - Vaccines for Children (VFC) Resolution
- VFC - Announcement of new Tdap vaccine to providers
- Tdap memo to VFC providers
References and Resources
- Related MMWR articles, links, and references
- More MMWRs on DTaP
- Pink Book's chapter on diphtheria (12 pages)
Epidemiology & Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases textbook - Surveillance manual's chapter on diphtheria UPDATED August 2008
Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases textbook - Travelers Health: Yellow Book
- Check Your Vials: Is it Tdap, DTaP, or Td? (exit)
Source: California Department of Health Services, Immunization Branch - Worksheet for reporting diphtheria (3 pages)
- Tdap printable materials (exit)
Source: California Distance Learning Health Network
Provider Education
- Clinical
education slide set
from the 2006 "Epidemiology & Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases" course - Diphtheria symptoms/signs checklist (2 pages)
Materials for Patients
- Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) (Td, DTaP, and Tdap)
- Informed consent for DAT
Investigative new drug- Consent for DAT in pdf format (7 pages)
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/diphtheria/dat/downloads/consent.pdf - Text-only version of consent for DAT (7 pages)
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/diphtheria/dat/downloads/consent.doc
- Consent for DAT in pdf format (7 pages)
- Stories of people who suffered or died from vaccine-preventable diseases (exit)
- Diphtheria: Questions and Answers (exit)
Ready-to-print versions of one of the CDC-reviewed Q&A material located on IAC's Vaccine Information website (www.vaccineinformation.org) Dated 2/07
For the Media
- Press release: More children in the U.S. will be protected from more diseases (2006)
- Press release: ACIP Recommends Adult Vaccination with New Tdap Vaccine (2005)
Note: The National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) does not endorse or promote newsletters from sources outside the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These are simply listed for your convenience.
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Content last reviewed on June 6, 2007
Content Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases