It is very distressing for the child, even though often when it is over the child will go back to sleep quite peacefully. After some weeks, the whooping will gradually become less frequent and then stops, though a cough may persist for some time afterward.
The reasons for the presence of this whooping is pertussis but not in other boughs found in bronchitis, etc., is that the sputum produced by infection with the pertussis germ is very thick and sticky. It sticks to the wall of the brochus and it is very difficult for the child to cough it up.
Yet the child cannot help coughing, because when there is anything in the bronchi which should not be there, such as sputum, blood, or a foreign body like nuts or cheese, it produces coughing because it irritates the wall of the bronchus.
There are complications of this disease which cause many deaths. One of the most serious is that which occurs in little babies under 1 year; sometimes they cannot cough up the sputum at all, get brochopneumonia and die.
Sometimes in older children, too, blockage of a bronchus by sticky sputum causes bronchiectasis. Occasionally, an inflammation of the brain causes death, and occasionally gastro-enteritis occurs also. Otitis media is a common complication sometimes found.
Drugs are not of much use once the whoop is developed. Good nursing and good foods are required, and advice on feeding with high-protein diet later after vomiting.
It is a serious disease in Africa, not only because of the fatal complications, but because it is difficult to get children to eat much during the illness, so that in children whose nutrition is already poor, it causes them to get worse and develop kwashiorkor or marasmus.
Cause. A bacterium called Bordetella pertussis.
Route. By droplet infection.
Pertussis Susceptibles
Children who have not had the disease or been immunized properly, especially those under 5 years, and worst of all those under 1 year.Pertussis Treatment
As with dipitheria, one most know why the disease was contacted; what were the reasons for not being immunized?Treatment is often unsatisfactory once the whooping has started. The drug which is most effective against the germ causing the disease is chloramphenicol which can be given for 5 days. If there is a complication pneumonia, it is often due to other bacteria which respond to 'penicillin'.
Prevention of Pertussis
There is a little possible by way of isolation except not to keep babies in the same room with other kids having colds and coughs. But this is very hard to put into practice.The only really good method of prevention is immunization. This should be done with triple vaccine as soon as possible after 2 months of age.
