Whooping
Cough
Whooping cough or
pertussis,
as it is called in medical parlance, is a contagious disease. Unlike
some
other diseases, a new born baby has no immunity to this disease, and
can
get it any time after birth. It commonly affects infants during the
first
year of their life, when it is very severe and most of the deaths due
to
it occur during this period. Many cases occur in children up to 5 years
of age. In some cases children up to 12 years may also be affected. The
disease may cause serious trouble in the lungs.
This highly
infectious disease
is caused by bacteria. It spreads rapidly from one child to another by
droplet-infection. This is especially so during the early catarrh
stage,
but once the typical spasmodic bout starts, the infectivity becomes
negligible.
This disease has a prolonged course of 8 to 10 weeks.
Symptoms
The disease has a
catarrhal
and a spasmodic stage. For the first week, the cough is like an
ordinary
upper respiratory catarrh. At the end of a week, it becomes spasmodic
and
comes in bouts, initially more often during the night, but later during
the day as well. The child goes on coughing. His face becomes red and
suffused,
the tongue protrudes and the eyes begin to water. At the end of the
bout,
the child takes a deep breath, and there is a prolonged croaking sound
which is called a whoop. This sound is produced by the air entering
through
a partially closed glottis (entrance to the larynx). This gives the
disease
its name. The child brings out a sticky secretion from his nose and
mouth
and very often vomits. At the end of the bout, the child lies back
exhausted.
Gradually, over the next three or four weeks, the bouts of cough and
their
duration become less and disappear in about 8 to 10 weeks from the
beginning
of the disease.
Due to the
severity of bouts
of cough, bleeding can occur into the eyes, from the nose, the lung,
and
in rare cases, into the brain, resulting in convulsions. In many young
children, lung complications such as collapse of a part of the lung are
common because of the thick sticky nature of the secretions blocking
the
passage of air to a part of the lung. Secondary infection may result in
pneumonia. They may be convulsions, and in rare cases, inflammation of
the brain.
Causes
Whooping cough is
caused
by the micro-organisms Bordetela pertussis and Bordetela parapertussis.
Of these, the first one gives the rise to more severe infections.
Whooping
cough is also associated with various adinoviruses, para-influenza and
respiratory viruses. The actual cause of the disease is wrong feeding
of
children with refined and demineralized foods and absence of a
sufficient
quantity of fresh fruits and salad vegetables in their dietary. This
results
in accumulation of excessive quantities of catarrh and mucus in the
child’s
system. The disease is an attempt on the part of the nature to throw
out
this catarrh and mucus. The use of drugs to treat other diseases can
also
lead to whooping cough.
Treatment
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