How to Use diphtheria in a Sentence

diphtheria

noun
  • Cholera and diphtheria have been rampant, and once again, Yemen faces a new surge in hunger.
    Author: Kathy Gannon, Andrew Meldrum and Lee Keath, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Dec. 2020
  • Epidemics such as cholera and diphtheria ravaged the poor and rich alike.
    Alexandra Mullen, WSJ, 11 Aug. 2017
  • And every member of the family should record the date of their last tetanus-diphtheria shot in this record.
    Kirsten Korosec, Fortune, 7 Sep. 2017
  • In Venezuela there are at least three epidemics at work, measles, diphtheria and malaria.
    Luciana Magalhaes and Juan Forero, WSJ, 31 Oct. 2018
  • Balto led the sled dogs on the last part of the trip that got a diphtheria anti-toxin to Nome, Alaska, to counter an outbreak of the disease.
    Rich Lowry, National Review, 17 Sep. 2023
  • Balto is the celebrated Siberian Husky who led his dog team on the last stretch of the 1925 diphtheria run to Nome.
    Anchorage Daily News, 16 Feb. 2021
  • Eleanor was 9 when her parents died of diphtheria, and she was packed off to her grandmother's house.
    Jacqueline Cutler, Star Tribune, 3 May 2021
  • But la dolce vita was short lived: On the trip, two of their children died of diphtheria and Percy drowned in Tuscany.
    Adam H. Graham, WSJ, 17 May 2022
  • One of Putin's elder brothers died of diphtheria during the siege and the other died a few months after birth.
    Fox News, 17 Mar. 2018
  • And adults should get booster shots to protect against tetanus and diphtheria every 10 years or so.
    Donavyn Coffey, SELF, 21 May 2021
  • In the opener, Dr. Turner and Nurse Crane must deal with an alarming outbreak of diphtheria.
    Chuck Barney, Detroit Free Press, 28 Mar. 2020
  • All family members should also record the date of their last tetanus-diphtheria shot in this record as well.
    Naseem S. Miller, OrlandoSentinel.com, 6 Sep. 2017
  • Victoria succumbed to a bad cold, her doctor suffered from a sore throat, the cook had diphtheria.
    Jonathan Miles, Town & Country, 5 Sep. 2023
  • Neel’s daughter—her second, after a baby who died of diphtheria—grew up mostly in the care of those in-laws in Havana.
    Joanna Scutts, The New Republic, 20 June 2022
  • Von Behring had taken serum from sheep exposed to diphtheria and used it to treat a child infected with the bacteria.
    Gary Stix, Scientific American, 3 Nov. 2020
  • In 1924, a diphtheria outbreak killed at least nine members and made dozens of others sick, according to the Lebanon Daily News.
    Kc Baker, PEOPLE.com, 29 June 2017
  • Four doses of diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis are required for preschool, child care and Head Start.
    OregonLive.com, 16 Aug. 2017
  • Some still have not caught up on shots for diseases like polio, measles, whooping cough and diphtheria, all of which can be dangerous.
    Dallas News, 11 Oct. 2022
  • The best vaccines—such as the ones for measles, rubella, and diphtheria—provide almost 100% protection for life.
    Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, 13 Aug. 2020
  • Putin's older brother Viktor died of diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad before Putin was born.
    Conor Finnegan, ABC News, 7 Mar. 2022
  • Tdap, which stands for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.
    Laura Dorwart, Health.com, 11 Oct. 2019
  • This includes the shingles vaccine and the tetanus-diphtheria-whooping cough vaccine.
    Nerd Wallet, oregonlive, 3 Feb. 2023
  • This is one of my favorite novels of the past 25 years — about a small Wisconsin town hemmed in by a diphtheria epidemic on one side and wildfire on the other.
    The Week Staff, The Week, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Recent years have seen a global increase in rates of diphtheria and measles; in 2019, the U.S. experienced its largest measles outbreaks in decades.
    Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2022
  • Other vaccines, like ones for diphtheria, tetanus, and polio are four doses or more.
    William Haseltine, CNN, 14 Sep. 2021
  • In 16 states, rates for kids entering kindergarten were at least 95% for measles shots and for the combination diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough shot.
    Lindsey Tanner, Chicago Tribune, 21 Apr. 2022
  • In 1925, a Siberian husky named Balto was part of a dog-sled team that raced across Alaska to deliver a serum to combat a diphtheria epidemic in Nome.
    Jiji Lee, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2021
  • Reports indicate that there were only 180 camp beds in the center, leaving the rest to sleep on the floor in cramped conditions—which led to outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria.
    Time, 1 Nov. 2022
  • To keep newborns and infants safe, Schauer said pregnant individuals should get the Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
    Maia Pandey, Journal Sentinel, 29 July 2024
  • Whooping cough is covered by a common childhood vaccination, as part of the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) or Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) shot.
    Alec Johnson, Journal Sentinel, 30 Apr. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'diphtheria.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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