Immunization for diphtheria in the 1920s.
A six-year-old has been admitted into the intensive care unit at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron center.
His parents are against the practice of vaccinations.
Catalan health authorities have confirmed that the little boy had not been immunized against the infectious disease, despite the free vaccination programs offered by Spanish public health services.
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There he is being treated with an anti-toxin, a drug that the Health Ministry had to search for worldwide. The World Health Organization and the health authorities in the United States were among those to whom the ministry went for help. “The problem is that these days, no one has this illness. Everyone is vaccinated,” the general secretary for the health service, Rubén Moreno, told EL PAÍS.
This is the first case of diphtheria in Spain since 1986. The anti-toxin being used to save this child's life had to be
flown in by the Russian ambassador to Spain.
One out of every 10 patients dies from complications derived from the early symptoms.
The existing vaccine does not protect against infection, but against the effects of the toxin that the bacterium produces. According to the Spanish Vaccine Society, systematic vaccination programs in Spain have covered more than 90 percent of the population.