Diphtheria

The toxin that causes diphtheria is produced by a normally benign bacterium when infected with a certain virus.

None of the family had been inoculated against diphtheria.

Diphtheria was a common disease at the time.

There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham.

Yanni and Rima experienced a tragedy. Their daughter contracted diphtheria and died at the age of four.

On vaccines, the letter says 86 percent of the world's kids now have coverage for a basic package of vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, the highest percentage ever.

Today diphtheria has become so rare — just five cases in the United States in the most recent decade measured — that many doctors would struggle to recognize it.