Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Abstract

Corynebacterium diphtheriae was first observed by Klebs in 1883 and was cultivated a year later by Loeffler, whose description in 1884 of the causative organism of diphtheria remains a standard. Diphtheria was a life-threatening disease throughout the world until the therapeutic use of antitoxin and the use, as a public health measure, of childhood immunization with toxoid. In Britain the use of toxoid was advocated by the Ministry of Health in the early 1920s, but it was not until 20 years later that extensive programmes of prophylaxis were carried out under the advertising campaign Diphtheria is Deadly.