[Environmental pollution and the characteristics of the epidemic process in diphtheria]

The analysis of materials for 1981-1993 on the city of Almaty and the Zhambyl, Aktyubinsk, East Kazakhstan and Kustanai provinces of the Republic of Kazakhstan made it possible to find out a number of specific features in diphtheria morbidity under the conditions of environmental pollution. It caused an increase in the number of the foci of the disease and in the proportion of bacterial carriers and diphtheria patients in the foci, the growth of the proportion of children among the patients and the proportion of toxic forms of diphtheria, the tendency towards a rise in the frequency of unfavorable outcomes of the disease. These features correspond to earlier data on the decreased immunological effectiveness of immunization with adsorbed DPT vaccine in the presence of environmental pollution in the above-mentioned territories.