The U.S. Public Health Service · Episode 17 of 34 · 21 min
Diphtheria: The Strangling Angel and the Birth of Vaccine Regulation
Diphtheria, the Strangling Angel of Children, caused over 200,000 U.S. cases and 15,000 deaths at its 1921 peak. It produced one of medicine's first lifesavers, the antitoxin, and one of its first disasters: in 1901 in St. Louis, antitoxin from a tetanus-infected horse named Jim killed thirteen children. That tragedy drove the 1902 Biologics Control Act, the first federal regulation of vaccines.
Who's who
- Emil von Behring+1 more episodeGerman scientist who developed diphtheria antitoxin; first Nobel in Medicine
- Theodore Roosevelt+14 more episodesPresident who signed the Biologics Control Act
- Béla SchickIntroduced the Schick test for susceptibility
Where it happens
- St. Louis, Missouri+2 more episodesSite of the 1901 contaminated antitoxin deaths
- Camden, New Jersey+2 more episodesSite of the parallel smallpox vaccine disaster
- Nome, AlaskaDestination of the 1925 serum run
Timeline
- 1901Von Behring wins the first Nobel Prize in Medicine
- October-November 1901Contaminated antitoxin kills thirteen children in St. Louis
- July 1, 1902Roosevelt signs the Biologics Control Act
- 1921U.S. diphtheria peaks near 206,000 cases and 15,520 deaths
- 1925Nome serum run delivers antitoxin by dog sled
- 1940sDTP vaccine drives the disease toward disappearance
Still debated
Credit for the antitoxin is shared beyond von Behring with Kitasato, Roux, and others. The St. Louis case is often called the first modern drug-safety disaster, a widely cited superlative, and the Nome run is heavily mythologized.
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