Related concepts:

Whooping cough, Bordatella pertussis

Introduction to pertussis:

I stood outside the closed door of the hospital room where an adorable 6-week-old baby lay all alone in her crib. As I scrubbed my hands in the sink outside the isolation room, an electronic monitor allowed me to hear her breathing peacefully.

Suddenly the quiet was shattered by a fit of coughing. And she couldn't stop. The coughs came so closely together that she couldn't catch her breath. I grabbed a mask from above the sink and, pressing it over my face, entered her room. The coughing continued. The pulse and oxygen monitor at her bedside complained insistently that her blood-oxygen levels were dropping. The EKG monitor sounded an alarm that her heart rate was dropping too. And she continued to cough. Even before I reached her bedside, I could see that her face was turning blue. She began to vomit.

Moments later the peace had returned. Her various monitors beeped tranquilly. The coughing spasm was over. This little girl with pertussis survived, but she had many more weeks of coughing spasms before she could return home to her parents.

What is pertussis?

Pertussis is caused by bacteria that attach themselves to the cilia (little hairs) that line the respiratory tract. These bacteria produce a potent toxin that inflames the respiratory tract and prevents the cilia from functioning properly. The disease can be serious or fatal in infants and unimmunized children. It is much milder in teens, adults, and in immunized children but it can still be a real nuisance. As you might guess, it can be far worse in people with asthma or with immune deficiencies.

Who gets pertussis?

I have spoken with many parents who believed that pertussis was a disease of the past. Nevertheless, pertussis is a common cause of chronic cough illness in adults and older children. A study published in the June 15, 2001 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases found that pertussis was the cause of chronic cough in 19.9 percent of the patients studied.

For healthy teens and adults, this is usually nothing more than a long nuisance (lasting months, sometimes with vomiting). For unimmunized babies and those at high risk, pertussis can be severe or even life-threatening.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, which once ravaged children around the world, is again on the rise. Worldwide, about 300,000 people die from pertussis each year. Serious disease is uncommon where immunization rates are high. Still, about 1 out of every 200 babies who get pertussis in the US will die from it. Another 1 out of every 200 will have lifetime brain damage. As many as 2 percent will have seizures, 22 percent will get pneumonia, and most (even in this modern era of reduced hospitalization) will be sick enough to be hospitalized.

Pertussis is found only in humans.

What are the symptoms of pertussis?

Classically, people with pertussis go through four stages:

1. Incubation.
   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • next ›
   • last »
   Show full page