Risk Wire - Episode 2 - Diphtheria in Europe: Why is ECDC Raising the Flag?

ECDC: On Air

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

Science

5 • 3 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this special episode of ECDC On Air, Bruno Ciancio - Head of Unit - Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-preventable Disease at ECDC, discusses the recent Rapid Risk Assessment on diphtheria, its symptoms, transmission, and the importance of vaccination. He highlights the current trends in diphtheria cases, particularly among vulnerable populations, and emphasizes the need for timely public health measures and effective treatment strategies.

The conversation also compares diphtheria with measles, underscoring the critical role of vaccination in preventing infectious diseases.

Read more about the situation in our press release here and find the full text of the Rapid Risk Assessment on diphtheria here.

More information on epidemiology in Europe in general can be found on our portal: ecdc.europa.eu ⁠ and ⁠social media channels⁠.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	ECDC on air.
0:05.2	The podcast of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
0:08.8	Keeping up to date with European Epidemiology.
0:15.1	Welcome to ECDC on air, the podcast from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
0:21.3	My name is Caroline and in today's Risk Wire episode, Bruno Chancho is here with me.
0:26.6	Bruno is the head of the ECDC unit dealing with directly transmitted and vaccine preventable diseases.
0:32.3	He will talk with us about diphtheria and why ECCDC recently published a rapid risk assessment about it. Thank you for joining us, Bruno.
0:55.8	Thank you, Caroline. Hello, everyone who is this name?
0:58.4	To start off with rapid risk assessment, when you say that, in a nutshell, when and why does
1:04.8	ECDC issue a rapid risk assessment?
1:07.1	ECDC main role is actually to assess and communicate infectious disease threats and infectious
1:15.2	diseases are posing significant threats to the European citizens, even today's, and particularly
1:22.2	today's, due to mega-drivers such as inequalities, the impact of climate change, the disruption of the
1:31.1	health system caused by wars.
1:33.1	So we are constantly trying to rapidly detect and assess possible infectious disease
1:39.2	risk with the objective to inform member states of the European Union and recommend the possible
1:47.1	ways to prevent the impact of such threats and control them in a timely manner.
1:54.0	Since infectious disease can spread very rapidly across the globe due to very intense movement
2:00.8	of people these days.
2:03.3	Timing is at the essence for our rapid risk assessment.
2:07.5	So rapid really means once you pick up a signal, you try to see whether you need to act.
2:13.1	It depends. Most of the times we can take some time and it's important to gather the right
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.