Diphtheria

[dif-the’ ’-re-ah) [di depa, a skin or membrane]. An acute infectious disease caused by the Klebs-Lorfler bacillus. It is characterized by the formation on a mucous membrane, most frequently that of the pharynx, of a false membrane, grayish or buff in color and quite firmly adherent. Any mucous membrane, as the laryngeal, nasal, conjunctival, and, more rarely, the gastrointestinal, vaginal, and that of the middle ear, may be the seat of the disease. The membrane may also be formed on wounds — Surgical or Wound- D. The constitutional symptoms result from the absorption of poisons elaborated by the bacteria, the bacilli themselves not being found in the blood as a rule. These poisons are a nucleoalbumin and a nuclein, the former producing the acute, the latter the later symptoms of the disease. The general symptoms are, in brief, fever, profound prostration, weakne of the heart, and a rapidly-developing anemia. A frequent sequel is paralysis, which may be general, but is often confined to the palatal and ocular muscles. Diphtheria is eminently a disease of childhood and very fatal. Death results from systemic poisoning, from heart failure, from obstruction to respiration by the presence of membrane in the air-pa ages, or from a complication, as pneumonia. D., Bretonneau’s, true diphtheria of the pharynx, first described by P. ch268.xhtml b 229