Diphtheria, a bacterial infection that had virtually disappeared from Morocco for decades, has resurfaced after a case was confirmed in the Souss-Massa region in late September, according to Dr. Tayeb Hamdi, a physician and health-policy researcher who is vice-president of Morocco’s National Federation of Health. As of September 28, one case had been confirmed by laboratory testing, while eight others remained under investigation, including two deaths; two family clusters had been identified, one in Agadir Ida-Outanane and another in Chtouka-Aït Baha.
Dr. Hamdi cautioned against over-interpreting the figures, saying it was not accurate to describe nine confirmed cases, and that the data pointed to a significant local resurgence rather than a national epidemic. He said the confirmed case belonged to a family in which two children died, and that several affected children were unvaccinated or had not received all recommended doses.
Diphtheria is caused mainly by strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae capable of producing a toxin that can destroy tissue locally before entering the bloodstream and affecting other organs, making the respiratory form of the disease a medical emergency. The infection spreads primarily through respiratory droplets and close contact, with an incubation period generally between two and five days; case fatality rates generally range between 5% and 10%, rising to around 20% among the very young and elderly, even with modern treatment.
Morocco recorded 14 diphtheria cases in 1989 and just one in 1991, before the disease nearly vanished from official records for decades amid rising vaccination coverage, which Dr. Hamdi said now stands at roughly 96% nationally — though that average can mask pockets of insufficient local coverage.
Health authorities have activated a response including case investigation, contact tracing, sampling, preventive antibiotics where necessary and catch-up vaccination, with records checked in some schools. Dr. Hamdi said four indicators will determine how the situation evolves: the final case count, the exact cause of the deaths, whether cases emerge without family links to the initial clusters, and whether additional clusters are detected elsewhere in the country.
