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Molecular characterization of Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolates, Russia, 1957-1987
Vegard Skogen1, Valentina V Cherkasova, Nina Maksimova
1Department of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway. vegards@fagmed.uit.no
Emerging Infectious Diseases
|May 9, 2002
Abstract:
In the 1990s, the Newly Independent and Baltic States of the former Soviet Union experienced the largest diphtheria outbreak since the 1960s; it was caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains of a unique clonal group. To address its origin, we studied 47 clinical isolates from Russia and demonstrated that this clonal group was an integral part of the endemic reservoir that existed in Russia at least 5 years before the epidemic began.