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The graph is is visual representation from The Green Book, that shows:
Before the 1940s, diphtheria was a common and serious illness in the UK. However, in the 1940s, a national immunization program was introduced to protect people against diphtheria.
This led to a significant decrease in the number of reported cases and deaths related to the disease. For instance, in 1940, there were over 61,000 cases with 3,283 deaths, but by 1957, there were only 38 cases and six deaths.
Between 1986 and 2002, the Health Protection Agency in England and Wales identified a total of 56 cases of toxigenic C. diphtheriae and 47 cases of toxigenic C. ulcerans. Most of these cases presented with mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Only a small number of patients had classical pharyngeal diphtheria, with eight cases caused by C. diphtheriae and six cases caused by C. ulcerans.
During this period, there were two deaths from diphtheria. In 1994, an unvaccinated 14-year-old died from a C. diphtheriae infection after visiting Pakistan, and in 2000, an elderly woman died from a C. ulcerans infection acquired in the UK.
Source: The Green Book
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