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 childs 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 whats 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.
Where are you (what state, city?) Thanks, worried for my kids and wondering where this is prevalent.
"Thanks President Bush! Thanks to your Open Borders Amnesty policy,we can count on more great diseases like this to make a comeback in the USA again!--You made this possible! Thank You! and Thank You Vincente! For sending us your poor,sick,hungry,and criminal. "
Not to worry, Real ID will bring an end to this and create an American Shangri La.
/sarcasm.
They can't give the pertusssis to anyone over 7, it's not licensed for adult use.
And you're WHERE?
City,County,State????
Aw, thanks for the info.
That explains it, because I looked at his records and when we went to China he was about 8 and got a Td (that's what it was called instead of DT), and this year they gave him another booster of Td because he's going to Central America (but he also went last year, and they didn't give him a booster, so I'm supposing they have about a 10 year effectiveness.)
So both times, he would have been over 7 and that's why it wasn't a DPT.
Good thing about FR, if you don't know an answer to a question, somebody else will.
JERRY: (Disgusted) What is with that?!
KRAMER: Well, it's coughing, Jerry. It expells the diseased germs out of the body, into the air. (Makes a guesture of germs being in the air)
BCG is the most used vaccine in the world.
But they doubt that its effectiveness carries over into adulthood because if it did, then we wouldn't have as many TB infected people worldwide.
Here's an interesting link on BCG.
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/tb/bcgvaccine.htm
anti-vaccination stupidity ping
Whooping-cough booster shots urged in Salt Lake County Salt Lake City Deseret News, UT - Pertussis cases whooping cough have tripled in Utah this year over years past. The Salt Lake Valley Health Department recently ... |
Whooping cough cases reported again; older children now can ... Herald & Review, IL - DECATUR - Eleven more people have been confirmed to have pertussis, or whooping cough, totaling 21 in Macon County this year, according to the Macon County ... |
A family member works for a health department in SC, and they have been fighting an outbreak of Whooping Cough for months. They say it's one of the worst outbreaks in a very long time. Here in Michigan, it's going around....my youngest son was in preschool and there were many kids with it. My son had it (twice) this past winter and my neighbor's kids came down with it as well...and it's not a fun thing to go through. Prayers for you and the family's quick recovery. As our pediatrician says "LOTS OF HANDWASHING!"...
I have not seem much here but my friends in CO say there is a lot where they live. My girlfriend who is in her early 50's came down with it. It was very, very bad. That was months ago and she is not really healthy yet. I hope your return to health is easier than hers has been.
Is there a particular area of the country this 'outbreak' is being seen ?
I haven't heard about it around here at all, but my kids are homeschooled so I don't always know what's happening in the schools. Where do you live? (Generally)
When my oldes was about 2 she experienced vomiting after coughing episodes and we had to have her tested for whooping cough. ARGH! That was about the worst thing I have ever had to have done to a kid! ICK!
Prayers for your quick recovery, PPaul!
"I am assuming if you have been vaccinated (DPT) it lasts your lifetime, I could be wrong about this."
Some are saying that the protection fades over time.
I think what a lot of people fail to grasp about immunization is that having the entire, or nearly entire, vulnerable population vaccinated is a big part of what makes it work. Folks think, well it's ok to not vaccinate my child, the others will be vaccinated so there will be no one for my child to catch the disease from. But once a bunch of folks start thinking like that the whole concept starts to fall apart.
I think they're going a tad overboard with vaccines these days, but for the most part it is worth the risk.
Yet anothe reason NOT to vaccinate your children. if you can still get pertussis AFTER vaccination, what is the point of vaccinating? Pertussis vaccine is reponsible for more children's deaths from vaccine reaction than pertussis itself. Vaccines are a boon for the drug congolmerates but are the bleeding and leeches treatment of the 20th century. Check out the National Vaccine Information center http://www.909shot.com ". . . If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on what individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow." - Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder NVIC
Sorry about the italics problem on my post....
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