title: Sudden death of a child due to respiratory diphtheria.
abstract: A four-year-old girl presented to the emergency department with respiratory distress. Death occurred despite attempted resuscitation. The illness was not clinically diagnosed. Her father revealed that she had a fever and sore throat for the last four days and was not immunised for diphtheria. Characteristic gross and microscopic pathology of respiratory diphtheria and microbiological findings were observed. The cause of death was acute respiratory failure consequent upon upper airway obstruction from diphtheria. Forensic pathologists should remember that the diphtheria cases can cause sudden death especially in developing countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Rajanikanta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swain
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India drchitta75@rediffmail.com.
authors.forename: Chittaranjan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Behera
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Sudheer Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Arava
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Naveen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kundu
mesh_terms: D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003353:Corynebacterium diphtheriae / Q000472:pathogenicity; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000473:pathology*; D004165:Diphtheria / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods
keywords: Diphtheria; child; immunization; medico-legal autopsy; upper airway obstruction