Public health departments in the North begin mass production of diphtheria antitoxin.
Date: 1884
This precursor to the TDaP vaccine is one of the first large-scale public health strategies to stop an epidemic. Up until this point, diphtheria is one of the highest killers of children. The availability of this antitoxin proto-vaccine saves the lives of many children where it is available. However, diphtheria continues to disproportionately affect Black and Southern communities, where mortality rates will remain high.