Diphtheria is one of childhood fevers the so called Acute specific fevers, like mumps, measles, german measles, chickenpox whooping cough and I put them all down in here because in each one of these some sort of oral or facial presentation might be picked up by you, or might be seen by you and you should know something about it, I have put the incubation period here, the Prodromal symptoms, these are symptoms that come on before the actual illness, whether there is a rash or not there, and what occurs in the mouth here, and it is the mouth column which is probably the most important For us and whether or not they are protected against by vaccines.
Lets go very slowly and start with Diphtheria. Diphtheria is a bacterial infection so it has a short incubation period, 1 -3 days, and the important thing that you might see is membrane, adherent membrane stack on the tonsils, it is a serious disease, fortunately nearly disappeared now because of vaccination, and the membrane can also involve the pharynx and cause respiratory obstruction. The larynx and even the anterior part of the nose where it may present just with a nasal discharge and it has serious complication in the heart where it produces an inflammation of the myocardium and central nervous system.
Diphtheria is protected by vaccine vaccination programme started by the NHS as early as 1940 and recently as 5 in 1 vaccine since 1986 and it protects against Diphtheria, whooping cough, Polio, Tetanus and Influenza and is given at 2 month 3 months and four months and the booster as 4 in 1 vaccine and since it's introduction has been very successful so that Diphtheria is now completely disappeared all together thanks to the good work carried out by the NHS.
Let's go over these again Mumps Inflammation of parotid duct ,important complication for others perhaps not for you measles koplick spots seen by you is an ill fretful child covered in a rash ,German measles not important for you exempt that the rash does look a bit like measles but disappears quickly ,diphtheria important for you because there is membrane on the tonsil and this is an illness which appears on the heart and nerves ,so that patients can be paralysed temporary and have severe heart failure chicken pox's important for you because you can actually see the vesicles in this case not only on the face but also on the palate and whopping cough important for you because you will here the patient cough and you might see ulceration of the fraenum of the tongue ,you might see sub conjunctival haemorrhages because of effort of coughing ,
