It is necessary for our health that we are vaccinated early with the DKTP vaccination, because it offers protection against various diseases. The combination of DKTP with the later DTP vaccination offers a lifelong guarantee against certain diseases. What are we actually protected against with this vaccination? ‘Diphtheria’, ‘whooping cough’, ‘tetanus’ and ‘polio’ are well-known words, but what symptoms do these serious diseases actually have, and what could the consequences/complications be?

DPTP vaccination

• Vaccinate quickly
• Diphtheria
• Whooping cough
• Tetanus
• Polio
• Necessity DKTP with DTP vaccination

Vaccinate quickly

We have just been born and within two months we will receive the first DKTP vaccination. It is a necessary vaccination for our existence, because the vaccination protects us from a number of very serious diseases. Without vaccinations we run the risk of contracting diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio throughout our lives. These diseases are not vaccinated for nothing, because they used to be very fatal diseases. What types of diseases and symptoms can be distinguished in these diseases?

Diphtheria

The bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae is transmitted through coughing and was in the past the number one cause of death in children. Once infected with diphtheria it takes up to four days to incubate. There is difficulty swallowing and a sore throat. The symptoms worsen to headache, fever, vomiting, nausea driven by increased adrenaline. As soon as the infection spreads further, the throat swells (a very recognizable phenomenon in croup), with breathing quickly becoming less. Large open ulcerated skin patches can also be the result. Continued symptoms include:

• the airways become tough and can block the airway, causing suffocation;
• the production of toxins, which affects the heart muscle and nervous system.

Diphtheria is a very fatal infection and must always be treated.

Whooping cough

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease in which droplets enter the air through coughing and are inhaled by others. This means that the Bordet-Gengou bacteria can spread very quickly. Whooping cough is divided into three stages:

• the illness starts with tears, sneezing and general discomfort. The cough develops into a dry cough, which worsens into continuous coughing and cramps. In this phase the disease is most contagious;
• the coughing fits worsen, causing the patient to have no air due to coughing. This is followed by extensive deep breathing, after which the coughing continues again. This is accompanied by vomiting and coughing up tough sputum (mucus from the inside of the lungs). In this phase (which lasts up to six weeks) the infection actually diminishes, but antibiotics do not help because the bacteria produce a lot of waste products;
• the intensity and frequency of the coughing fits decreases.

If the patient does not suffocate during the various phases and survives the disease, the patient can be immune to the disease for up to twenty years.

Tetanus

If the Clostridium tetani bacterium enters the body through a minor injury such as walking into a nail or being bitten by an animal, the bacterium produces tetanus toxin in the body. This is a very dangerous toxin, causing severe muscle cramps and breathing problems. The muscle cramps start in the jaws and then spread over the entire body. There are the following three phenomena:

• all the muscles of the body stiffen and cramp;
• the jaw muscles show a painful grimace, the so-called sirus sadonicus;
• the back muscles contract, causing the patient to lie continuously bent backwards, the so-called opisthotonus.

If contracted tetanus is treated quickly, there is still a fifty percent chance that the patient will die. The patient has terrible muscle pain and is always conscious. Ultimately, the respiratory muscles or heart muscles are affected, causing death.

Polio

The viral disease polio occurs in children and is also called infantile paralysis. This inflammation affects the gray matter mass in the spinal cord. The virus is spread through the feces of infected people. If there is poor hygiene, the virus can spread quickly. It takes six to twenty days for symptoms to appear. Polio often progresses without problems and the patient hardly notices it, but it remains a source of infection. Approximately five percent have a sore throat and stomach discomfort, while one percent develop paralysis symptoms.

Necessity DKTP with DTP vaccination

The DTP vaccination has been developed to combat the aforementioned diseases at an early stage and is repeated with a DTP vaccination. A vaccination basically involves infecting the body on a limited scale, so that antibodies in the body respond well to the aforementioned bacteria. In this way, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio can no longer occur in the vaccinated person due to:

• the diphtheria toxoid component that achieves antitoxic immunity. Please note that the DTP repeat injection gives the best result for long-term protection;
• administering a solution containing the killed Bordet-Gengou bacteria;
• the tetanus oxoid also provides immunity against tetanus;
• administering killed virus particles of polio types I, II and III.

With these vaccinations, everyone is protected against these potentially fatal diseases, which immediately makes it clear how necessary the DKTP vaccination is for our existence.

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