Lifestyle and home remedies

Recovering from diphtheria requires lots of bed rest. Avoiding any physical exertion is particularly important if your heart has been affected. You may need to get your nutrition through liquids and soft foods for a while because of pain and difficulty swallowing.

Strict isolation while you're contagious helps prevent the spread of the infection. Careful hand-washing by everyone in your house is important for limiting the spread of the infection.

Once you recover from diphtheria, you'll need a full course of diphtheria vaccine to prevent a recurrence. Unlike some other infections, having diphtheria doesn't guarantee lifetime immunity. You can get diphtheria more than once if you're not fully immunized against it.