title: Cutaneous diphtheria masquerading as a sexually transmitted disease.
abstract: A 41 year-old, sexually promiscuous, married male, an agricultural laborer by occupation, presented to our sexually transmitted diseases (STD) clinic with multiple ulcers over the scrotum and genitalia of 20 days' duration. Bacterial culture from swabs taken from the genital ulcer, grew organisms morphologically and biochemically characteristic of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. He made a complete and uneventful recovery after two weeks of therapy with antidiphtheria serum and crystalline penicillin. This case brings into light this hitherto unreported presentation of wound diphtheria mimicking a sexually transmitted genital ulcer disease and thus, underlines the importance of considering diphtheria as differential in atypical, long-standing genital ulcers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and STD, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry-605 006, India.
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Vetrichevvel
authors.forename: Gajanan A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Pise
authors.forename: Kishan Kumar
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: Devinder Mohan
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Thappa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004165:Diphtheria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents