With the arrival of the winter season in all parts of the world, coughing and sneezing are also accompanied by it. While colds and flu...
With the arrival of the winter season in all parts of the world, coughing and sneezing are also accompanied by it. While colds and flu’s are often pointed out as the culprits of the red and runny noses people carry throughout the winter season, did you know that Pertussis may share similar symptoms to that as a common cold?
Patients of Pertussis or “the whooping cough” as it is more widely known, go through an extremely frustrating and slow recovery. Teenagers and adults whose immunity to the pertussis vaccine has declined may be affected. The group that is most susceptible, however, is infants under 6 months who have not received full courses of the pertussis vaccine. People who are sternly impacted by the disease have coughing fits which are then followed by a classic whooping cough.
Symptoms
Symptoms usually appear within 5 to 10 days post exposure. They may even extend to as long as 3 weeks.
In Stage 1, Pertussis may be mistaken for being a common cold, as they usually begin with the same symptoms such as a runny nose, sneezing, and cough or fever. In babies, coughing may not be present and are likely to be replaced by a pause in breathing.
In stage 2, coughing fits are followed by “whooping” which occurs in conjunction with vomiting and exhaustion. The “whooping” occurs due to the fatiguing nature of the coughs, which tend to eat up air from the lungs making the need for the lungs to “whoop” and inhale loudly for oxygen. These coughing fits can last for 10 weeks or longer. However, in the recovery phase, the cough slowly lessens in intensity, but may return due to other respiratory infections.
What You Can Do
Prevention is the key to avoiding all illnesses. Babies and children should undertake a complete series of the DTAP vaccine, which includes the 4 doses at 2, 4, 6 and 15-18 months, and subsequent booster shots at 4 to 6 years old. Immunity is compromised when the full series of vaccines is not completed. Therefore, you must make sure your child undergoes the complete vaccination procedure before they grow older than the listed age groups.
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