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.
My nephew was severely brain damaged by a DPT shot. He has severe seizures to this day, and at 21, functions at the level of a three year old. He never spoke again.
Sorry to hear about your nephew. It just goes to show that even though a risk is deemed small, it still is a risk.
THis is why we need to constantly make these vaccines more effective and safer.
If this is true, many children will die, murdered by the anti-immunization bigots.
For those who live, the coughing can be so intense that you literally cough your guts out (the other end).
In what areas of the States?
Exactly. Diseases like leprosy, whooping cough, and tuberculosis, which were pretty much eradicated in the U.S. are now cropping up with alarming frequency in areas with large illegal alien population. Yet neither the GOP nor the 'Rats see anything wrong with it.
Were yall ever vaccinated for this ? I'm not judging. I'm just wondering if the childhood vaccinations are protecting or not.
In 1989 one of my babies had his first DPT vaccine and we thought he was going to die from the reaction he had. We were told by the PEDIATRICIAN that it was probably the Pertussis vaccine reaction and from then on to only give him the DT vaccine, not the DPT. From then on, he had the DT vaccine series and had no problems with that version.
Why won't you answer where you are located?
Hep B can be very dangereous indeed.
November 1st 2004.
Not really breaking news?
You do not have to get any immunizations for your kids. It is strongly recommended. You can opt out. Otherwise -- the government is forcing a citizen to do something -- and then what? they jail you if you don't? Can't do.
Parents in Phoenix are being warned about it, and are being urged to get their kids vaccinated. We've had our first confirmed case in Cochise County ID'd this past weekend, with another suspect case.
Coming from two generations of military dependent families, I've never understood not getting vaccinations. For us, they were free...and mandatory when we traveled to overseas duty stations.
From what I understand, vaccinations for childhood diseases are free for all if you know where to go. Or at least, they don't cost more than a 6-pack or a meal at Micky D's...
Here's my rationale for immunizing my kids. We don't hear stories about years ago except from old ladies who lost a baby or two or three or more to whooping cough or any of the other common diseases that can kill. People tend to forget things like big flu epidemics and some things are just not in history books. My grandma lost one, out of her 11 children. I know about it because my father remembers, he was a little guy at the time and sad because his mother told him his baby brother died during the night. They all had whooping cough and the baby died, he was three months old. This would have been around 80 years ago.
We live near a cemetery, there are lots of graves there that are 100 years old, and lots of little graves that are either unmarked or have a little lamb over them. My father tells about whole families who lost all their children or almost all of them from diseases back in those days.
The really sad thing is that all of these diseases now are preventable with a couple shots given as infants. I made the decision to give my kids the shots, even though there were slight risks of complications. I am convinced that the people in the 70's and 80's who didn't give their kids the immunizations rode along on the wave of good public health practice for a while, and now we are paying the price.
It's a tough decision to make, but all I kept thinking of was all those mothers who were afraid to get too attached to their babies because babies died so frequently.
Immunizations for those under 18 are free.
I took my 17 year old to get his vaccinations for an upcoming trip to Central America, and not only was the DT free, but also the Hep A.
The only one we had to pay for was the typhoid.
Does anyone else ever tire of hearing about how everything from Star Wars to whooping cough has to do with illegal immigration? I acknowledge it is a huge problem, but seriously, does it need to be mentioned on every single thread.
"Illegal aliens are bringing in diseases that had been almost eradicated in America long ago."
True. Not only whooping cough, but resistant strains of TB, polio and other diseases. Sadly, maybe only a pandemic of catastrophic proporations will open the eyes of the politicians in Washington to the illegal immigrant epidemic.
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