Whooping cough
Description:
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious disease which causes classic spasms (paroxysms) of uncontrollable coughing, followed by a sharp, high-pitched intake of air which creates the characteristic "whoop" of the disease's name.
Whooping cough is caused by a bacteria called Bordatella pertussis. B. pertussis causes its most severe symptoms by attaching itself to those cells in the respiratory tract which have cilia. Cilia are small, hair-like projections that beat continuously, and serve to constantly sweep the respiratory tract clean of such debris as mucus, bacteria, viruses, and dead cells. When B. pertussis interferes with this normal, janitorial function, mucus and cellular debris accumulate and cause constant irritation to the respiratory tract, triggering coughing and increasing further mucus production.
Whooping cough is a disease which exists throughout the world. While people of any age can contract whooping cough, children under the age of two are at the highest risk for both the disease and for serious complications and death. Apparently, exposure to B. pertussis bacteria earlier in life gives a person some immunity against infection with it later on. Subsequent infections resemble the common cold.
Signs and Symptoms:
Once you become infected with whooping cough, it can take one to three weeks for signs and symptoms to appear. They're usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold:
· Runny nose
· Nasal congestion
· Sneezing
· Red, watery eyes
· A mild fever
· Dry cough
After a week or two, signs and symptoms worsen. Thick mucus accumulates inside your airways, causing uncontrollable coughing. Severe and prolonged coughing attacks may:
· Provoke vomiting
· Result in a red or blue face
· Cause extreme fatigue
· End with a high-pitched "whoop" sound during the next breath of air
However, many people don't develop the characteristic whoop. Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that an adolescent or adult has whooping cough.
Transmission and incubation period
The whooping cough bacteria are spread from person to person in airborne droplets or by direct contact with infected throat or nasal discharges. Coughing and sneezing are the most common modes of transmission.
Once infection with the whooping cough bacteria has occurred, the time until symptoms appear (incubation period) is usually between five to 10 days, though it can be as long as 21 days.
The contagious period is from seven days following infection with the whooping cough bacteria, to up to one month after the appearance of the coughing spasms, with the most contagious period being during the catarrhal stage.
If there is an outbreak of whooping cough it is advisable to keep uninfected children (especially those who are unimmunised) away from the source of the infection until after the contagious period has passed. Likewise, children with whooping cough should be removed from school or daycare until they are no longer infectious.Top of Form
Prevention:
The mainstay of prevention lies in programs similar to the mass immunization program in the United States which begins immunization inoculations when infants are two months old. The pertussis vaccine, most often given as one immunization together with diphtheria and tetanus, has greatly reduced the incidence of whooping cough. Unfortunately, there has been some concern about serious neurologic side effects from the vaccine itself. This concern led huge numbers of parents in England, Japan, and Sweden to avoid immunizing their children, which in turn has led to major epidemics of disease in those countries. However, several carefully constructed research studies have disproved the idea that the pertussis vaccine is the cause of neurologic damage. Furthermore, a newer formulation of the pertussis vaccine is available. Unlike the old whole cell pertussis vaccine, which is composed of the entire bacterial cell which has been deactivated (and therefore unable to cause infection), the newer acellular pertussis vaccine does not use a whole cell of the bacteria, but is made up of (between two and five) chemical components of the B. pertussis bacteria. The acellular pertussis vaccine appears to greatly reduce the risk of unpleasant reactions to the vaccine, including high fever and discomfort following vaccination.
Description:
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious disease which causes classic spasms (paroxysms) of uncontrollable coughing, followed by a sharp, high-pitched intake of air which creates the characteristic "whoop" of the disease's name.
Whooping cough is caused by a bacteria called Bordatella pertussis. B. pertussis causes its most severe symptoms by attaching itself to those cells in the respiratory tract which have cilia. Cilia are small, hair-like projections that beat continuously, and serve to constantly sweep the respiratory tract clean of such debris as mucus, bacteria, viruses, and dead cells. When B. pertussis interferes with this normal, janitorial function, mucus and cellular debris accumulate and cause constant irritation to the respiratory tract, triggering coughing and increasing further mucus production.
Whooping cough is a disease which exists throughout the world. While people of any age can contract whooping cough, children under the age of two are at the highest risk for both the disease and for serious complications and death. Apparently, exposure to B. pertussis bacteria earlier in life gives a person some immunity against infection with it later on. Subsequent infections resemble the common cold.
Signs and Symptoms:
Once you become infected with whooping cough, it can take one to three weeks for signs and symptoms to appear. They're usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold:
· Runny nose
· Nasal congestion
· Sneezing
· Red, watery eyes
· A mild fever
· Dry cough
After a week or two, signs and symptoms worsen. Thick mucus accumulates inside your airways, causing uncontrollable coughing. Severe and prolonged coughing attacks may:
· Provoke vomiting
· Result in a red or blue face
· Cause extreme fatigue
· End with a high-pitched "whoop" sound during the next breath of air
However, many people don't develop the characteristic whoop. Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that an adolescent or adult has whooping cough.
Transmission and incubation period
The whooping cough bacteria are spread from person to person in airborne droplets or by direct contact with infected throat or nasal discharges. Coughing and sneezing are the most common modes of transmission.
Once infection with the whooping cough bacteria has occurred, the time until symptoms appear (incubation period) is usually between five to 10 days, though it can be as long as 21 days.
The contagious period is from seven days following infection with the whooping cough bacteria, to up to one month after the appearance of the coughing spasms, with the most contagious period being during the catarrhal stage.
If there is an outbreak of whooping cough it is advisable to keep uninfected children (especially those who are unimmunised) away from the source of the infection until after the contagious period has passed. Likewise, children with whooping cough should be removed from school or daycare until they are no longer infectious.Top of Form
Prevention:
The mainstay of prevention lies in programs similar to the mass immunization program in the United States which begins immunization inoculations when infants are two months old. The pertussis vaccine, most often given as one immunization together with diphtheria and tetanus, has greatly reduced the incidence of whooping cough. Unfortunately, there has been some concern about serious neurologic side effects from the vaccine itself. This concern led huge numbers of parents in England, Japan, and Sweden to avoid immunizing their children, which in turn has led to major epidemics of disease in those countries. However, several carefully constructed research studies have disproved the idea that the pertussis vaccine is the cause of neurologic damage. Furthermore, a newer formulation of the pertussis vaccine is available. Unlike the old whole cell pertussis vaccine, which is composed of the entire bacterial cell which has been deactivated (and therefore unable to cause infection), the newer acellular pertussis vaccine does not use a whole cell of the bacteria, but is made up of (between two and five) chemical components of the B. pertussis bacteria. The acellular pertussis vaccine appears to greatly reduce the risk of unpleasant reactions to the vaccine, including high fever and discomfort following vaccination.