Diphtheria Before Vaccines

 In 1892, Anna Troemel was turning 4 when she contracted Diphtheria. She died within a week of her birthday. The sad fact is that if she had not gotten the disease for just another 10 months, she might have been able to receive one of the precursor cures that would become available - a serum that killed the bacteria derived from sheep's blood. In just 2 more years, the first vaccination would become available in New York City. However, the vaccine was not widely available until the 1920s and there were many false starts on getting this vaccine available to the public.

Diphtheria is highly contagious and is spread not only by droplets but also by coming into contact with surfaces that an infected person has touched. In Anna's time, the death rate was 20% for children under 5 or adults over 40. It is not known how many of the 7 others in the household also became sick, but it appears that only Anna died. Her siblings were all older than she and so were in an age group with only 5-10% death rate. They had better odds of survival if they did contract it.

Diptheria was identified in Minnesota in 1877 and it took a few years before it was realized how contagious the disease was. So when the disease came to Wisconsin in 1880, they had some idea of how serious it was. Still, in 1891, Wisconsin had over 3,600 cases reported to the State Board of Health. Of these 3,600 reported cases, there were more than 900 deaths of a 25% mortality rate. Anna was at the end of this outbreak succumbing in early 1892.

The families in that time quarantined from other families and perhaps took some steps to separate the ill from the well within the home. Fortunately for the Troemels, their surviving children likely developed antibodies from their exposure and were protected from further recurrences of the disease.

Diphtheria was worse than COVID-19 in that there is a higher mortality rate. Even though there is a vaccine, the world still has diphtheria outbreaks in countries like Korea and Viet Nam. However, because of strong vaccination requirements in the U.S., there have only been 2 reported cases since 2005. However, it took many years and a concerted effort to reach this level. I can only hope that a vaccination to COVID-19 is found that is effective and can be given as widely. If not, we will live with COVID-19 for several years to come.



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