CONCLUSION

Conclusively, C. Diphtheriae  is a gram-positive bacterium that causes diphtheria disease. It was discovered by Edwin Klebs and Friedrich Löffler in 1884. According to history, it has mostly affected children aged below 15 and has caused more than 40,000 deaths. The number of diphtheria rates decreased in the 1920's when countries were introduced to effective immunization.   

Diphtheria is a serious disease because it is linked with severe infections of the upper respiratory tract and skin ulcerations. It causes many complications such as: ear infection, airway obstruction, myocarditis and neuritis that can lead to paralysis, pneumonia, and respiratory failure.  

It is transmitted from one person to another from respiratory droplets and the symptoms include fever, sore throat, and loss of appetite. The infection is identified by the pseudo membrane on the larynx, pharynx, tonsils, and nasal tissues, which is caused by the toxin.  

Virulence of this disease is diphtheria exotoxin that is released from toxigenic strains of C. diphtheriae. Furthermore, the virulence of C. diphtheriae disease is associated with diphtheria toxin repressor (DtxR), because when there is an increased level of iron in the environment, the amount of toxin produced is repressed by DtxR.  

The treatment involves keeping the patients in isolation for 48 hours, after giving antibiotics which destroys the diphtheria bacteria, and antitoxin that is used to neutralize the toxins. The prevention of this disease involves 3 diphtheria toxoid immunizations with tetanus toxoid and pertussis vaccine before 6 months of age, and 3 booster doses at the ages 12-23 months, 4-7 years and 9-15 years.  

After more than 50 years of vaccinations diphtheria has mostly been forgotten in many countries, the disease occurs very rarely nowadays, and this is evidence showing that effective immunization has taken place in many countries.