Cutaneous infections due to Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae was grown from skin lesions of 44 indigent patients seen at the emergency or out-patient departments of this hospital, 43 of them within the last 16 months of the study period. In all cases staphylococci or hemolytic streptococci were also present in the wounds. An increase in the incidence of clinical diphtheria occurred in the few months preceding and overlapping the period of recognition of the cutaneous infections. The gravis strains, which accounted for the majority of the infections, were sensitive to erythromycin and to penicillin, but were relatively resistant to cloxacillin.