Modern treatment of diphtheria

Diphtheria is an infectious and contagious disease characterised by a local lesion resul tant upon the invasion and proliferation of the KLebs Loeff'ler Bacillus, and a c onstitutiona.l manifestation of symptoms and sequelae, due to the adsorption of the toxins elaborated by the specific bacillus.The specific antitoxin serum is both curative and prophylactic. It does not cause post-diphtheritic paralysis, the increase in incidence being only an apparent one, the result of better diagnosis and classification, and. of life being preserved in a larger number of patients.The earlier the stage of the disease in which the ant it oxin is administered, the greater are the chances of successful treatment, as the beneficial effects of the serum progressively and increasingly depreciate with each day that passes without its administration.It is a false economy to give antitoxin in other than a liberal dosage.Certain grave phenomena are seen as sequelae to the injection of antitoxin and. other sera. These occurrences, it would appear, are commonly associated with persons of the asthmatic or "angio-neurotic" diathesis. Therefore, rare as are these anaphylactic conditions, it nevertheless behoves the exercise of careful consideration, before submitting such persons to subcutaneous administration of serum of any kind.Anti-diphtheritic serum map be given per os or per rectum with beneficial results.For prophylactic purposes antitoxin given by mouth is quite efficiently protective.A livelier appreciation of the nature and dangers of diphtheria on the part of the public at large would result in a marked decrease in the mortality of the disease, by reason of the children being sent to Hospital, or otherwise receiving appropriate treatment at an earlier stage of the disease."Diphtheria carriers" and undiscovered diphtheritic infections of the nose and skin particularly, ray be potent factors in the spread of the disease, especially in the case of schools and other institutions in which young persons s.re congregated.The supplying of antitoxin by Local Sanitary Authorities to Medical Men gratis, should be an invariable rule throughout the country