Pertussis is a bacterial disease and whooping cough the common name used for it. The word whooping is used because in the end, the sound produced from cough is like whooped high pitched sound. This disease is spread because of Bordetella pertussis or Bordetella parapertussis bacteria.
When the patient is affected from it, the coughing becomes so sever that it becomes even hard to breathe. And this cough is bitter, severe and uncontrollable. This begins with running nose, harsh cough and somehow slight fever.
This condition stays for one to two weeks which then converts to whooping cough. And this can last to four to five weeks. This disease is also known as 100 days cough or cough of 100 days in many countries because it usually last for around these number of days. When the whooping cough spell starts, mostly it end with vomiting.
Pertussis or Whooping Cough is more common is children specially of age less than five. And it is very dangerous and serious disease for under one year kids. The other such symptoms of this disease are;
The average number of cases found before the invention of vaccines for this disease were 157/100,000 in the United States. And among those cases, only 93% were in children under the age of ten years. The vaccination was started in United States in 1940 and then the number was dropped to 1/100,000 that is satisfactory. And these rates are reportedly have increases since 1980.
Pertussis is spread when the uninfected person inhales the droplets that are sprayed in the air by an infected person. Once the bacteria gets inside the respiratory tract, it produces toxin which is a poisonous chemical that interferes with the respiratory tract’s ability to eliminate microbial infections.
There are certain treatments of this disease and few are mentioned below;
When the patient is affected from it, the coughing becomes so sever that it becomes even hard to breathe. And this cough is bitter, severe and uncontrollable. This begins with running nose, harsh cough and somehow slight fever.
This condition stays for one to two weeks which then converts to whooping cough. And this can last to four to five weeks. This disease is also known as 100 days cough or cough of 100 days in many countries because it usually last for around these number of days. When the whooping cough spell starts, mostly it end with vomiting.
Pertussis or Whooping Cough is more common is children specially of age less than five. And it is very dangerous and serious disease for under one year kids. The other such symptoms of this disease are;
- Runny nose is most common and starting symptom
- Low Fever (102 °F or lower)
- Diarrhea
- Cough with whooping sound
- Cough with Whoop and vomiting
The average number of cases found before the invention of vaccines for this disease were 157/100,000 in the United States. And among those cases, only 93% were in children under the age of ten years. The vaccination was started in United States in 1940 and then the number was dropped to 1/100,000 that is satisfactory. And these rates are reportedly have increases since 1980.
Pertussis is spread when the uninfected person inhales the droplets that are sprayed in the air by an infected person. Once the bacteria gets inside the respiratory tract, it produces toxin which is a poisonous chemical that interferes with the respiratory tract’s ability to eliminate microbial infections.
There are certain treatments of this disease and few are mentioned below;
- Doctors treat patients mostly with antibiotics.
- Sedatives are sometimes used to control cough.
- Loss of fluids is controlled by providing liquids through any way.
- The Pertussis vaccine is also given along with diphtheria and tetanus vaccines in a shot called DTaP.
