whoop whoop

Whooping Cough:
(as it so often happens, while investigating this disease, I learned something about vaccines too) Firstly, I heard on the news and confirmed with the CDC and WHO that the respiratory infection pertussis also known as Whooping Cough is increasing in frequency in the USA and other parts of the world. The disease at one time effected over 100,000 persons a year but with the DTaP vaccine, that incidence came down as low as 3000 a year. The CDC has the rate back into five digits. One reason could be lack of vaccination. The illness, which affects the lungs and begins much like a cold, is very contagious. Pertussis is a bacterial infection and it has a three stage progression. I wanted to look into it when I heard it referred to as a serious and sometimes fatal respiratory infection. I had just not thought it so serious, perhaps because of the common name. It is also true that I received all my vaccines in the late 60s before we were all afraid to get them. My cohort, in other words, didn’t get this disease. The second phase of the disease is the worst and can last for weeks if not months. The person, usually a child, has uncontrolled, frequent, explosive coughing events. Antibiotics can be used. When I read that the illness was a bacterial infection, thus treated with antibiotics, I got confused. I have only recently truly absorbed that viruses or viral infections are NOT treated with antibiotics. I took that further to mean that vaccines were for viral diseases and not bacterial ones. The herpes VIRUS, the Flu, human pappillomaVIRUS, but alas, it is not true. Vaccines are created for both types, it is just that the medicines to treat the actual infections are different.

Pertussis is a serious and contagious disease that is better prevented than treated. The whoop sound comes between coughing spasms as the patient gasps for breath. Recovery is long and has its own phase. A person does not suffer the coughing spells in the first or last phase, but during the last phase a person is lethargic and weak.