Starting February 2010, the responsibility for the activities of the European Diphtheria Surveillance Network has been transferred to ECDC.

The activities are aimed at integrating surveillance, which covers all diphtheria diseases caused by toxigenic C. diphtheriae and C. ulcerans from an epidemiology and laboratory point of view.

Although diphtheria (caused by toxigenic C. diphtheriae)  is a rare disease in the European Union region, the World Health Organization (WHO) elimination targets  for western and central Europe are met and more than 10 years past the elimination target date. The elimination goal of indigenous diphtheria strains has not been met in the entire region (NB region is based on the WHO European Regional Office's definition; see  “Manual for the Management and Control of Diphtheria in the European Region, WHO EURO 1994” ). The indigenous transmission continues in Latvia, Ukraine and in Russian Federation, and epidemic diphtheria could return to the European Union. Therefore, high vaccination coverage must be sustained, adult booster coverage increased, and surveillance and laboratory capacity maintained.