WHOOPING COUGH

Whooping cough – known medically as pertussis – is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. Although it initially resembles an ordinary cold, whooping cough may eventually turn more serious, particularly in infants. In the more advanced stages, it's marked by the symptom that gives the disease its name: a severe, hacking cough followed by a high-pitched intake of breath that sounds like "whoop."

Whooping cough is more serious in children, especially infants younger than 6 months of age.

Once you become infected with the bacterium that causes whooping cough, it takes a few days to a few weeks for signs and symptoms to appear. When they do, they're usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold, such as: a runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, red, watery eyes, a mild fever, dry cough, general feeling of being unwell and loss of appetite, after a week or two, signs and symptoms become worse and usually include: severe coughing attacks that bring up thick phlegm.

Coughing attacks that end with a high-pitched whoop sound as you gasp for air. These may be so severe that your child vomits or turns red or blue from the effort.

Fatigue from coughing so much. In adults, signs and symptoms of whooping cough may resemble those of bronchitis, a respiratory infection that causes a nagging cough – you may have heard it referred to as the "100-day cough." Babies and infants with whooping cough may not whoop at all, or at least not as loudly as older children do. Some children with whooping cough may experience choking spells and turn blue in the face as they struggle to breathe after a coughing fit.

Severe coughing can result in tiny red spots caused by ruptures in blood vessels at the skin's surface (petechiae) in your upper body, as well as small areas of bleeding in the whites of your eyes. You may even bruise or break a rib if your coughing episodes are severe. Coughing may be worse at night.

Even after treatment to destroy the bacteria, your body continues to repair the damage to the lining of your trachea. As a result, the cough often lingers after the initial illness. With time, coughing usually lessens but can persist for six weeks or longer. Some people may even experience recurring episodes of coughing over the course of a year, especially when they contract a cold or other respiratory infection.