1. What is whooping cough?
Your baby is coughing! When the cough is intense, the face is red, even purple, the eyes are red and tearful, the body is bent into a ball, and it is painful, and repeated treatment does not improve the condition. Looking at the child’s poor, helpless eyes, the mother is really anxious tears, the father pounded his chest, what is going on?
I don’t know, but this is a paroxysmal spasm-like cough caused by Bacillus pertussis infection, which is an acute respiratory infectious disease. The disease is mainly spread through droplets and is highly contagious; the younger the baby is, the more serious the disease is, and death can occur due to complications of pneumonia and encephalopathy.
2. What is the current prevalence of whooping cough?
With the popularization of pertussis vaccination and other measures, its incidence has decreased significantly, but it has not yet been controlled globally. In recent years, the global incidence of pertussis has been on the rise, with repeated reports of localized outbreaks or epidemics, a phenomenon we call the “re-emergence of pertussis”. The rate of hospitalization and death of infants and children who are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated is high, and the death rate is as high as 3%.
3. What are the clinical manifestations of whooping cough? Does it really cough for 100 days?
Some babies start with coughing and sneezing with low fever, followed by paroxysmal, spasm-like coughing, followed by chicken-like inspiratory roar after spasmodic coughing, and small infants within 3 months of age often cough 3 to 4 times to hold their breath and become cyanotic, and in severe cases, suffocation, or even respiratory and cardiac arrest. Respiratory failure, pulmonary realignment, and pertussis encephalopathy.
Whooping cough does not mean that the cough must last for 100 days, nor does it end on its own when it reaches 100 days; it is called “whooping cough” because the disease can last for 2 to 3 months.
4.What methods are available to help diagnose whooping cough?
(1) PCR test for B. pertussis; (2) B. pertussis culture; (3) B. pertussis antibody test.
5.What should I do if I have pertussis?
If your baby develops recurrent paroxysmal cough and episodes of cyanosis, you should first go to the hospital for examination and treatment. Once pertussis is diagnosed, regular treatment should be administered promptly. The first choice is erythromycin, which should be given orally or intravenously for a course of 7-14 days. If your baby has a violent cough, use cough suppressants; if the sputum is sticky and not easy to cough up, use nebulized inhalation. At the same time, pay attention to keeping the room quiet, air circulation, and eating nutritious, easy-to-digest food.
6.How to effectively prevent whooping cough?
The combined diphtheria-tetanus-whole-cell pertussis vaccine has been commonly used in China in the past, but after 2007, the independently developed acellular pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus vaccine (DPT) has been commonly used, and the safety of this vaccine has been greatly improved compared with the traditional whole-cell pertussis vaccine.
The Ministry of Health in China requires that babies receive a total of three doses of basic immunization at 3, 4, and 5 months of age, respectively, and one dose of booster immunization at 18 to 24 months of age. However, as the level of pertussis antibodies generally decreases with age, booster immunization must be given at the right time to improve the immunization level of the population and interrupt the spread of pertussis bacilli. Therefore, one booster immunization can be considered for children aged 6 years.