Savchuk A. Molecular and genetic aspects of diphtheritic infection epidemiology

The investigation concerns the features of the diphtheritic infection epidemic process at different levels of its manifestation and determines ways to surveillance improvement. The characteristic features of the epidemic process and the clinical course of diphtheria have been presented depending on the availability of vaccinations. The evolution of infection under the influence of vaccination on epidemic indications has been determined. Intraspecific and intrastrain population heterogeneity of Corynebacterium diphtheriae has been studied on toxin production basis and molecular-genetic characteristics which that indicate a high adaptive ability of the pathogen on that facilitates its adaptation to the changing surrounding conditions. The information subsystem of epidemiological surveillance of diphtheria infection has been improved. The classical microbiological methods can also be used along the new molecular genetic methods for tox-gene detection and genotyping this will improve the efficiency of estimation and prediction of epidemic situations.