What is Whooping Cough?
Whooping cough, medically termed as Pertussis, is a kind of very severe cough that produces sound like ‘whoop’ while taking breath in. It is caused due to attack of the bacterium, named Bordetella pertussis, and sometimes, in a very mild case, by B.parapertusis. It is a form of a highly contagious disease affecting small babies and children mainly.
Because the victims of this diseasee are small babies and children, the mortality rate is also high, as around 300,000 cases of death are estimated from the total of 30-50 million patients. Maximum percentage of the patients, around 90%, is from developing countries only. Some vaccines are there, like DTP (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) and DtaP, to prevent this disease. Mortality rate are more from those child who are unvaccinated.
The characteristics or the symptoms of the whooping cough starts coming out after incubation period of two days. The symptoms include light cough, sneezing or sometimes running nose. If not treated properly, the symptoms changes into severe cough, making sound like’barking’ or ‘whooping’. In a very critical stage, coughing becomes very severe and can accompany fits and vomiting. Fits trigger at time of yawning, stretching and laughing. If treated properly, the fits can diminish after a period of one and two month. Some complications are attached with this disease, like pneumonia.
Symptoms of Whooping Cough
Symptoms of whooping cough are different at every stsge of its development in the body.
Initial or the catarrhal stage: 
The incubation period of this stage is around one or two weeks. And, the symptoms are of very mild disease, like running nose, congestion, light coughing, or congestion in nose.
Sometime fever is seen to be affecting in early morning or late night. The symptoms specifically do not confirm the presence of whooping cough. But, still if not treated properly they can take patient to the severe stage.
Middle or the paroxysmal stage:
The stage can last for a very long period, like from six weeks to up to 10 weeks. The symptoms also indicate the severity of the stage. Like during this stage, coughing can be very intense and can draw out bouts in it. The frequency of coughing attack can range between 15 to 20 times in a day. The occurrence of these attacks at night is higher than day time. One can hear the sound of whop in between the coughing and inhaling time. Symptoms of this stage in infants are very critical. They can turn into blue color after a long period of coughing. Sometimes, babies hold their breath for long period while coughing and this is considered as a very serious life-threatening condition for that baby. Sometimes coughing follows vomiting, again a not very light symptom of the disease.
Severe or the convalescent stage:
It can take several weeks or months to get recover from. The symptoms include all the signs given in the initial and middle stage but the severity level of these symptoms is quite high. Now, the cough can come along with certain sudden outbursts and it might contain blood in it, because of the force it is coming out from the throat.
Causes of Whooping Cough
The disease is contagious in nature and is caused by inhaling airborne microorganisms, infected bacteria, passed by somebody who is already infected by this disease. The bacteria are spread in the environment through coughing and sneezing done by infected person.
Infected person, who is not at all vaccinated for the disease, spread this disease very rapidly in his surroundings.
Babies who are not vaccinated for this disease are very easy catch of this infectious disease. In US most parents do not get their babies vaccinated for these diseases because of the illness caused after vaccination like autism. But it is not at all a good approach that help babies in any ways. Unvaccinated babies have very weak immune system and they are very much on danger side.
Incomplete vaccination is also considered as a main cause of this disease. The vaccination process requires two or three injections to be given to the babies in an interval of certain period. If anyone of the injection got skipped or not given, it increases the chances of getting affected by this disease.
The affects are seen more in new borns and the symptoms include breath-holding cough. So whenever a baby is showing symptoms of this disease, it is required to contact the pediatrician as soon as possible
Diagnosis of Whooping Cough
As it is said earlier, whooping cough affects small babies and adults very much, as they have weak immune system. It is a contagious disease, which is spread by discharge of airborne infectious bacteria in the environment by already affected person. Person who is in the initial stage of the disease too can spread this all over very easily. The sneezing and coughing done by that person can affect the whole environment around.
Symptoms in the initial stage are not very specific to indicate that the disease is whooping cough. Symptoms of middle stage can clear the picture that the disease is whooping cough or something related to that.
To confirm the presence of Bordetella pertussis, nasopharyngeal swabs are cultured on Bordet-Gengou medium. Cotton is used to take the swabs because the infectious bacteria has the characteristic to get inhibited or grew on the cotton. The culturing process is done through several steps like polymerase chain reaction and serological methods.
Serology is done to detect presence of the bacteria in adults, who do not go for the treatment in the initial stage of the disease. The main function of the serology is to look after the percentage of the antibodies, having ability to fight against Bordetta pertussis, in the blood. Complete blood count of the patient is detected to check the bacteria in the body.
Treatment of Whooping Cough
Initially, after detecting the disease, the patient is put on a course of antibiotics that help in making him non-contagious.
Azithromycin is given for atleast 5 days and Clarithromycin is for 7 days and erythromycin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxozale (TMP/SMX) is given for very long period, for 14 days.
Antibiotics are given as early as possible to help in not spreading this disease in the environment, harming other members of the family also. In US, doctors sometimes recommend to the family members to take some dosage of these antibiotics, in order to become safe from this contagious disease. Care of special cases in the family, like pregnant woman or small child should be taken more to prevent them getting this disease.
As the stage increases, the complexity of the disease also increases. Some of the symptoms are found to be resistant from antibiotics, again making it a very complex condition.
Completion of whole series of vaccination is must to prevent from this disease. Children below the age group of 7 years are required to get all the shots of the vaccination with the routine interval of time.
Booster shot is equivalent important to be given to the patient within 3 years of the age. And, adults who are affected by this disease should be given Tdap shots to prevent from this disease.
Affected person should put himself in an isolated environment so that the disease does not spread over in the whole environment. As soon as the antibiotics start showing out its effect, the affected person will be able to come and meet people around.
Tips need to be followed at home:
The patient should kept separate from other family members, like separate bed room should be allotted to him till the time he is on antibiotics. One can meet him but he should wear surgical mask in order to prevent himself from the disease.
Practice hygienic approach at home. Wash hand before touching any thing at home so that the bacteria do not spread over.
Patient should drink a lot of liquid including water, juices, glucose water to help himself in not getting dehydrated due to frequent vomiting happening to him.
In order to control vomit, one should take small meals within an interval to give time for food digestion.
Infants should be given extra care. Complete check of their body, including color of the tongue, frequency of urination should be noticed to avoid severe complexity of the disease to happen. Give medication as prescribed by the doctor, don’t try to become doctor yourself. Always consult your doctor if some change is happening.
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