Diphtheria
Diphtheria is a bacterial infection affecting the nose and throat. It typically causes a bad sore throat, fever and weakness. The distinguishing sign is a thick, gray covering in the back of the throat that can make breathing difficult. Diphtheria can also infect your skin. Diphtheria is treatable with medication. However, if left untreated it can cause heart, kidney and nervous system damage. Even with treatment, diphtheria can be deadly - 1 of 10 people who get diphtheria die of it.
Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms can include
- Sore throat and hoarseness
- Painful swallowing
- Swollen glands/lymph nodes in your neck
- A thick, gray membrane covering your throat and tonsils
- Difficult or rapid breathing
- Nasal discharge
- Fever and chills
- Malaise
Signs and symptoms usually begin two to five days after a person becomes infected, but they may take as many as 10 days to appear.
Some people become infected with diphtheria-causing bacteria, but they develop only a mild case of the illness and show no signs or symptoms of the disease. They're said to be carriers of the disease, because they may spread the disease without showing signs or symptoms of illness.
Skin (cutaneous) Diphtheria
A second type of diphtheria can affect the skin. A wound infected with bacteria is typically red, painful and swollen. A wound infected with diphtheria-causing bacteria also may have patches of a sticky, gray material. Although it's more common in tropical climates, cutaneous diphtheria also occurs in the United States, particularly among people with poor hygiene who live in crowded conditions. In rare instances, diphtheria affects the eye.
Call your doctor or homeopath immediately if you or your child has signs or symptoms of diphtheria or if anyone in your family has been exposed.
Potential Complications
If left untreated, Diphtheria can lead to:
Breathing problems:
Diphtheria-causing bacteria may produce a poison (toxin). This toxin damages tissue in the immediate area of infection — the nose and throat, for example. This localized infection produces a tough, gray-colored membrane — which is composed of dead cells, bacteria and other substances — on the inside of your nose and throat. This tough membrane, or covering, is dangerous because it can obstruct breathing.
Heart damage:
The diphtheria toxin may spread through your bloodstream and damage other tissues in your body, such as your heart muscle. One complication of diphtheria is inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis). Signs and symptoms of myocarditis include fever, vague chest pain, joint pain and an abnormally fast heart rate. Damage to the heart from myocarditis may be only slight, showing up as minor abnormalities on an electrocardiogram, or very severe, leading to congestive heart failure and sudden death.
Kidney damage:
The diphtheria toxin may damage the kidneys, affecting their ability to filter wastes from the blood.
Nerve damage:
The toxin can also cause nerve damage, targeting certain nerves such as those to the throat, making swallowing difficult. Nerves to the arms and legs may also become inflamed, causing muscle weakness. In severe cases, nerves that help control the muscles used in breathing may be damaged, leading to paralysis of these muscles and trouble breathing.
With treatment, most people with diphtheria survive these complications, but recovery is often slow. Diphtheria is fatal in approximately one in 10 cases.
Treatment
Diphtheria is a serious illness. Doctors treat it immediately and aggressively with these medications:
- AntitoxinAfter doctors confirm that a person has diphtheria, the infected child or adult receives a special antitoxin. The antitoxin neutralizes the diphtheria toxin already circulating in your body.
- AntibioticsDiphtheria is also treated with antibiotics, such as penicillin or erythromycin. Antibiotics help kill bacteria in the body, clearing up infections. Antibiotics reduce to just a few days the length of time that a person with diphtheria is contagious.
Children and adults who have diphtheria often need to be in the hospital for treatment. They may be isolated in an intensive care unit because diphtheria can spread easily.
The Vaccination
There are at least ten different vaccinations that contain the Pertussis vaccine. None of them are single vaccine injections; they all include at least one other and up to a total of five vaccines in one jab (Pediatrix)
- ADACEL
- Sanifo Pasteur
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
- Boostrix
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
- DAPTACEL
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
- DT
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Diphtheria, Tetanus
- Infanrix
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
- Menactra
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Meningococcal, Diphtheria
- Pediarix
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Diphteria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B, and Polio
- Td (generic, adult formulation)
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Tetanus, Diphtheria
- TriHiBit (Also known as ActHib)
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Hib
- Tripedia
- Sanofi Pastuer
- Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
Clicking on the drug name will open the Drug Insert Sheet that all drug manufacturers must create and distrubte with each bottle of vaccine. In these sheets you will find their description of ingredients, how the vaccine was tested, the side effects and a list of contraindications (people who should not recieve the vaccine). PLEASE investigate each one before deciding whether that particular vaccine is right for your child. Weigh the risks of the disease against the risks of the vaccine. You can treat the disease, you can't take back a vaccine once its been given.
Other Resources
- Diphtheria by Hilary Butler
- DPT: Five Vaccines in One
- Mayo Clinic information on Diphtheria
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Choice
There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
~Denis Waitley
Melissa
Melissa is a 35 year old Army wife to her deployed husband, and the mother of three girls. Two are toddlers and the third is a teen, lending to her bouts of insanty. Melissa and her husband Tom are still deciding whether or not they will have "one more" while Melissa tries to figure out how to convince Tom that homebirth is a good thing.
