Posted on 06/09/2005 12:26:04 AM PDT by ppaul
Whooping Cough Outbreak
Communities throughout the U.S. are experiencing whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks - the worst in 40 years.
If the school nurse or the health department informs you that there is a pertussis outbreak in your school or community, you may need to call your pediatrician. The school or health department will tell you if your child was directly exposed and requires antibiotics.
Health departments across the country are acting quickly to prevent the spread of pertussis, so your cooperation in contacting your pediatrician is crucial. Please follow the instruction of the health department. The care of children in an outbreak situation is different from care in isolated cases and the health department has the most updated information on how best to prevent disease.
This illness is called pertussis because it is caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussis, which attacks the lining of the breathing passages, producing severe inflammation and narrowing of the airways. Severe coughing is a prominent symptom. Because the child is short of breath, she inhales deeply and quickly between coughs. These breaths frequently make a “whooping” sound, which is how this illness got its common name. Older children might not have the whoop sound. The intense coughing scatters the pertussis bacteria into the air, spreading the disease to other susceptible persons.
Symptoms of Whooping Cough
Whooping cough often acts like a common cold for a week or two. Then the cough gets worse, and the child may start to have the characteristic “whoops.” During this phase (which can last two weeks or more), the child often is short of breath and can look bluish around the mouth. She also may tear, drool and vomit. Infants with pertussis become exhausted and develop complications, such as susceptibility to other infections, pneumonia and seizures. Pertussis can be fatal in infants, but the usual course is for recovery to begin after two to four more weeks. The cough may not disappear for months and may return with subsequent respiratory infections.
When to Call Your Pediatrician
Pertussis infection starts out acting like a cold. You should consider the possibility of whooping cough if the following conditions are present.
The child is a very young infant who has not been fully immunized and/or has had exposure to someone with a chronic cough or the disease.
The child’s cough becomes severe and frequent, or her lips and fingertips become dark or blue.
She becomes exhausted after coughing episodes, eats poorly, vomits after coughing and/or looks “sick.”
Treatment for Exposure
The course of treatment depends on the nature of the exposure. If there is a whooping cough case in your school but your child has not been directly exposed, your health department or pediatrician may just recommend that you watch closely for developing symptoms. If your child was directly exposed, your child may need to be treated with antibiotics even if they are not showing symptoms. Your health department and pediatrician will be able to recommend what’s best for your particular circumstances.
Treatment for Disease
Depending upon the age of the child and the severity of the illness, treatment may include the following either at home or in the hospital:
Antibiotics – may be given intravenously.
Close observation – sometimes in an intensive-care setting.
Oxygen and intravenous fluids.
Oh, so you do have a shift key on your keyboard, eh?
It is now easily treatable with antibiotics, though, isn't it?
I did some very minimal research and found one medical website that says it can be treated with antibiotics.
Thanx for this info.
There are many adults in the metro ny area with an intractable congestion/cough apparently misdiagnosed as bronchitis. Anyone with this condition should insist on a throat culture, which will either confirm or eliminate pertussis.
Not to mention the increased costs in gasoline, food items and other asundries....cause these millions of illegal immigrants are consumers.
Oh, crap... you don't think... naah.
DPT protection against pertussis fades over time. This is not seen as terrible because in general, pertussis in older adolescents and adults is not as severe as pertussis in small children. However, that does not mean that adolescents and adults can't get sick with the bacteria. In addition, the pertussis vaccine that is now used does not offer complete protection. The previous version of the vaccine offered better protection but did bear a risk of rare but serious side-effects.
Some vaccines do offer life-long protection, and others don't. It all depends on how many different strains of the bacterium/virus exist, and the physical characteristics of the organism. Some organisms have characteristics that make it almost impossible to develop a highly effective vaccine.
You're absolutely right. Multidrug resistant TB, the alphabet list of Hepatitis, Denghue Fever, Whooping cough, the list is endless, brought to the US by leaky borders and willful blindness on the part of the admin. The goal is one hemisphere, free travel, free trade, no matter what. American safety/jobs/lives are way, way down at the bottom of the list in small print.
Many illegals get jobs in fast food joints, so think about that next time you eat out.
Vaccines are not consistently effective against anything and (also) infectious agents mutate...meaning, vacciness, to be effective (most effective) have to be developed along with the mutating infectious agents, specifically targeted to the current state of whatever it is that's infectious, because vaccines are created from the infectioius agents and aren't effective for earlier or other strains of anything.
Theory applies to every vaccine for everything we have developed vaccines for.
Illegal aliens in the school system...
Bio terror in America
No, but lots of people are afraid of a severe reaction to the pertusis component, and opt out.
Two of my three children had the full sequence of DPT's, but my older son had the reaction everyone is afraid of to the first (uncontrollable crying is the main sign in infants), and consequently didn't take the rest (later ones could be fatal since the immune response has been primed).
I suspect if it were only folks who opted out after a reaction to the first we'd have enough kids vaccinated to have 'herd immunity' (as the term of art goes), but that's not the case.
Were your children vaccinated for it? Your's cold have worn off (that is the germ may have mutated enough that your immune system no longer "recognized" it, but if your kids were vaccinated they should have been protected. If they were vaccinated, then we might have a faster than usual mutation rate
No, they just don't let your kid into school. Which may no longer be much of an incentive, come to think of it.
They did until people started focusing on the risks, small but real, of the shots, and not on the benefits, large and equally real.
My 15 year old daughter had it this winter. She was only partly vaccinated due to a bad reaction the first time. It was scary to watch.
How would home schooling protect one from a disease? The child is STILL exposed when playing with others, going to church, going to the grocery store, the mall, the playground, or the random person passing by while standing in your yard?
I wouldn't be so fast to blame immigrants.
It's the whooping cranes.
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