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Two asylum seekers have been hospitalised with diphtheria amid a 50 per cent rise in cases of the infectious disease in the past month, new data has revealed.
It comes after the Home Office confirmed that a man who died after staying at the Manston processing centre did have diphtheria.
Diphtheria is a highly contagious infection that is very rare in the UK - due to high levels of vaccination in the general population.
According to data published by the UK Health Security Agency, 50 asylum seekers have tested positive for toxigenic C. diphteriae from 1 January to 25 November this year.
There have been two cases of severe respiratory diphtheria where asylum seekers were hospitalised.
Cases of diphteria have massively spiked over the past month, with only one case of toxigenic C. diphtheriae reported in June, July, August and September respectively.
In October, this jumped to 18. 27 cases were recorded in November, UKSHA revealed.
More to follow...
