Whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. In many people, it’s marked by a severe hacking cough followed by a high-pitched intake of breath that sounds like “whoop.”
Before the vaccine was developed, whooping cough was considered a childhood disease. Now whooping cough primarily affects children too young to have completed the full course of vaccinations and teenagers and adults whose immunity has faded.
Deaths associated with whooping cough are rare but most commonly occur in infants. That’s why it’s so important for pregnant women — and other people who will have close contact with an infant — to be vaccinated against whooping cough.
Once you become infected with whooping cough, it can take one to three weeks for signs and symptoms to appear. They’re usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold: runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, red, watery eyes, a mild fever, dry cough.
After a week or two, signs and symptoms worsen. Thick mucus accumulates inside your airways, causing uncontrollable coughing. Severe and prolonged coughing attacks may: provoke vomiting, result in a red or blue face, cause extreme fatigue, end with a high-pitched “whoop” sound during the next breath of air
However, many people don’t develop the characteristic whoop. Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that an adolescent or adult has whooping cough.
Whooping cough is caused by bacteria. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, tiny germ-laden droplets are sprayed into the air and breathed into the lungs of anyone who happens to be nearby.
Whooping cough is thought to be on the rise for two main reasons. The whooping cough vaccine you receive as a child eventually wears off. This leaves most teenagers and adults susceptible to the infection during an outbreak — and there continue to be regular outbreaks. In addition, children aren’t fully immune to whooping cough until they’ve received at least three shots, leaving those 6 months and younger at greatest risk of contracting the infection.
Most people recover from whooping cough with no problems. When complications occur, they tend to be side effects of the strenuous coughing, such as: bruised or cracked ribs, abdominal hernias and broken blood vessels in the skin or the whites of your eyes
Call your doctor if prolonged coughing spells cause you or your child to: vomit, turn red or blue or inhale with a whooping sound.
