Whooping cough is called the “hundred-day cough” because it can take a long time for the infection to clear. Infectious diseases doctor, candidate of medical sciences, chief physician of the INVITRO-Siberia clinical diagnostic laboratory, Andrey Pozdnyakov, told socialbites.ca about the dangers of whooping cough.
“Whooping cough is a respiratory disease that is transmitted through airborne droplets and is not very contagious. Not chickenpox, not flu, not Covid. To catch whooping cough, you need close and prolonged contact. However, whooping cough can also manifest itself in epidemic outbreaks and, as a rule, this , is associated with contacts and the introduction of infection into close groups such as kindergartens, schools, boarding schools, military units, etc. The incubation period of whooping cough is very long, the duration and onset of the disease: 7-20 days, against the background of normal temperature and well-being, the person begins to have a simple cough, It lasts a little over a week, then it becomes paroxysmal,” the specialist explained .
According to the doctor, the causative agent of whooping cough has a toxin that causes frequent coughing, accompanied by breath holding, spasmodic breathing and sometimes vomiting after coughing.
“This is exactly the “calling card” of whooping cough, such a cough appears in patients a week and a half after the onset of the disease and the person has to be actively treated with antibiotics from the first days, but a person first develops a normal cough without fever and feels normal, then The doctor does not prescribe antibiotics and then there is no point in using them. At this stage, all that remains is to give the patient medications that reduce cough. Unfortunately, there is no other treatment,” Pozdnyakov added.
The danger of whooping cough is the occurrence of apnea attacks (breath holding) with prolonged paroxysmal cough; It may take tens of seconds.
“Such a reflex spasmodic breath holding is primarily hypoxia of the brain. In newborns, unfortunately, periods of apnea may occur regularly due to the immaturity of their head structure, this is the main danger of this disease: apnea, hypoxia and disorders of consciousness up to coma. The second unpleasant situation is the occurrence of pneumonia. More often It is whooping cough or complications caused by a bacterial infection, which can lead to serious consequences and even death. That is why whooping cough is a disease that is dangerous for young children. Under one year of age, it needs to be treated as an inpatient; for other categories of patients, whooping cough can be treated on an outpatient basis .”
Previously virologist warned Russians are taking their last chance to get vaccinated before the flu epidemic.