The role of cutaneous diphtheria infections in a diphtheria epidemic.

Twenty-four people with diptheria and 48 carriers were found in an isolated, circumscribed, rural area during a one-month period. Four patients had cutaneous lesions, which were similar to those of typical impetigo, form which Corynebacterium diptheriae was isolated. These cases constituted an epidemiologic focus from which the other cases were infected. Ten of 52 classroom contacts of two patients with skin infections harbored C. diphtheriae in the pharynx, while only eight of 132 classroom contacts of eight respiratory cases were similarly infected. Respiratory carriage of C. diphtheriae in five of 12 Head start classroom contacts of another patient with cutaneous infection with C. diptheriae in the classroom situation. A tendency toward greater environmental contamination by cutaneous diphtheria than by respiratory diptheria might be related to the greater contagiousness cases.