Danbury’s deadly diphtheria outbreak in 1917

Diphtheria was an unchecked killer in 1917 and Danbury had an outbreak in March of 1917 when a family was struck with the disease. The following news items come from The News, a Danbury publication.

“Diphtheria, one of the most dreaded of all diseases, has made its appearance in our community. At the Oscar Miller home a few miles south of Danbury, three deaths have already resulted from it. Friday night the youngest child died, and Sunday night the fourteen-year-old daughter passed away, to be followed in a few hours by the mother. The father and one other child lay in a critical condition for days, but latest reports are to the effect that there is some improvement. Many of the neighbor women had volunteered to care for the sick and were quarantined in with the family. What was first thought to be scarlet fever combined with diphtheria broke out in the Oscar Miller family, being on the old Playford place, southeast of Danbury last week. Later the malady was called back diphtheria. Their eighteen month old baby, Catherine Louis, was the first victim of the disease, dying last Saturday morning. The elder sister Naomi Ruth, died the next night at 10 o’clock, aged 14 years, and the mother, Mrs. Maude (Schrup) Miller followed at 1 o’clock Monday morning making three deaths in the family in three days. The bodies were hurriedly buried in Sherman Cemetery without any funeral services on account of the fear of spreading the dread disease. The four remaining children have the disease, but hopes are entertained for their recovery.” March 16, 1917

“Two more deaths have occurred in the O. Miller family southeast of Danbury, since our last report, making a total of five including the wife and mother. The last victims of the plague were the twin daughters, Amanda and Armanda, age about seven years, who died Friday and Saturday.” March 23, 1917.

Diphtheria toxoid was developed in the 1920s but was not widely used until the 1930s. Combined with the tetanus toxoid and pertussis vaccine (DPT) a single vaccination was routinely used in the 1940s and is today a standard in children’s vaccinations. Considering that prior to the development of the toxoid, one of every five children under the age of five who contracted diphtheria died, the continued standard of vaccination is well received. The United States had three confirmed cases of diphtheria in 2020, two of which resulted in the death of the patient.

Diphtheria is a bacterial based disease and can spread quickly through contact with respiratory droplets. A toxoid is a toxin modified to invoke an antibody response, but not capable of causing death. Four categories of vaccines in clinical trials are: whole virus, protein subunit, viral vector and nucleic acid (RNA and DNA). Some work by sneaking the antigen into a person’s system, others use a person’s cells to create a viral antigen.

The small pox vaccine worked because they used the similar disease, Cowpox, to create a vaccine to inject a weaker version of the small pox hopefully developing antibodies but not making the person sick with Cowpox. The rabies vaccine was the first one developed in a lab using attenuated rabies virus cells. Attenuated means altered or weakened cells which are then injected to create antibodies against the infection.

As a simple explanation, the RNA or DNA vaccines work because instead of injecting an attenuated form of a virus or bacteria, they alter a part of the virus’s own genetics to create immunity. An example of an early USDA approved DNA animal use vaccine is the one used to protect horses from West Nile which was licensed in 2005. A branch of the Department of Agriculture is responsible for approving all vaccines used in veterinary services.

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