Pertussis or Whooping Cough
Whooping cough a.k.a(also known as) Pertussis is a highly
contagious disease. Whooping cough is one of the leading causes
of vaccine-preventable deaths. There are 30 to 50 million cases
of Pertussis per year. Of these millions of cases there is about
three hundred thousand deaths each year. Basically all of these
deaths occur in children under twelve months of age. Another
quick statistic is that of these 30 to 50 million cases, 90%
occor in developing countries.
The disease was easily and widely recognized in as early as
1578. It was later isolated in pure culture in 1906 by Octave
Gengou and Jules Bordet. The complete Pertussis genome of
4,086,186 base pairs was sequenced in 2002. Inititially the Whooping Cough is characterized by mild
respiratory infection symptoms. These symptoms include a cough,
sneezing, and runny nose. This initial stage lasts for about one
to two weeks. After this first two week period the cough changes
character, with paroxysms of coughing followed by a "whooping"
sound. Often times these coughing fits are followed by vomiting.
This constant coughing and vomitting in several cases leads to
malnutrition. Coughing fits gradually go away over the first one
to two months. Other complications of the disease include
pneumonia, encephalitis, pulmonary hypertension, and secondary
bacterial superinfection.
Whooping Cough is spread by contact with an airborne discharge
from the mucous membranes of an infected person. The disease is
treated with antibiotics like erythromycin, azithromycin and
clarithromycin. These antibiotics result in the person becoming
less infectious but in the majority of cases does not change the
outcome of the disease.
Immunizations for whooping cough are often combined and given
with tetanus and diphtheria immunizations. These immunizations
are given to infants at ages 2, 4, and 6 months, and later at 15
to 18 months and 4 to 6 years. Many cases of Whooping cough in
adults will go unnoticed and diagnosed due to the fact that it
is much less severe.