In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health-policy matters, WHO is issuing a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines against diseases that have an international public health impact. These papers are concerned primarily with the use of vaccines in large-scale immunization programmes; they summarize essential background information on diseases and vaccines, and conclude with the current WHO position concerning their use in the global context. This document contains the following information related to diphtheria: background, the pathogen and the disease, protective immune response, diphtheria vaccine, duration of protection, adverse events, general WHO position on new vaccines, WHO position on diphtheria vaccine. Source: http://www.who.int/immunization/wer8103Diphtheria_Jan06_position_paper.pdf
- epidemiology
- health policy
- Diphtheria
