Diphtheria
Diphtheria is a serious bacterial disease that frequently causes heart and nerve problems. Symptoms include sore throat, low-grade fever, and swollen neck glands. The toxin or poison, caused by the bacteria also causes a thick coating on the tonsils, throat, and/or nasal cavity. As the infection progresses, the person may have difficulty breathing or swallowing, complain of double vision, have slurred speech and signs of shock with pale/cold skin, rapid heartbeat, sweating, and an anxious appearance. If the disease progresses beyond this point the toxin can spread into the blood stream and cause life-threatening injury to the heart, kidney and other organs. Nerve damage and paralysis can also result.
Without treatment, 40 to 50 percent of infected persons die, with the highest death rates occurring in the very young and the elderly. In the 1920s, there were 100,000-200,000 cases of diphtheria each year with 13,000-15,000 deaths. Since the introduction of the vaccine for diphtheria the disease has dramatically declined from a high of 206,939 reported cases in 1921 to one case in 2002.
