Pertussis In Children - Symptoms And Treatment Prevention

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 17:49

Whooping cough in children, what is the danger?

Although medicine has made a huge breakthrough over the past decades, whooping cough, as before, remains one of the most dangerous infections, which is especially widespread among the child population. Most often, parents rely entirely on doctors to identify and treat pertussis in children. However, the presence of a certain baggage of knowledge will make it possible to radically change the course of the disease in a positive direction.

If the child has not been vaccinated against whooping cough, then one day he will probably encounter this bacterium and get sick. Moreover, the infection will be difficult for him, accompanied by a strong paroxysmal cough.

Content:

• Dangers of whooping cough for children
• Symptoms of whooping cough in children
• Hundred-day cough is a sign of whooping cough
• How to relieve a child's condition?
• Whooping cough treatment in children
• Prevention of disease with antibiotics
• Should you get the whooping cough vaccine?

Dangers of whooping cough for children

The person is 100% susceptible to whooping cough. Therefore, if he was not given a vaccine, then, when he first met a pathogenic microorganism, he would definitely get sick. This is especially true for children, and the younger the child, the higher the risks that the disease will have a severe course. The bacterium is transmitted by airborne droplets.

Most often, whooping cough affects children under the age of 2 years. It is in this age group that a large number of deaths are recorded.

It should be understood that the administration of a vaccine is not a panacea for the disease, and the risk of infection still remains. However, the chances of getting infected are extremely small. Moreover, if the bacteria does enter the child's respiratory tract, it will be unable to cause serious damage to his health.

Neither the vaccine nor the illness once transferred gives lifelong immunity to whooping cough. Antibodies will circulate in the body for no more than 5 years, after which their number will begin to decline sharply. Already 12 years after the last vaccination, human immunity to whooping cough is completely lost. This explains the fact that if an infected person appears in the family, all its members become ill.

The average duration of the disease is 3 months. The therapy carried out at this time does not have any significant effect on the timing in terms of their reduction.

Symptoms of whooping cough in children

The main danger of whooping cough lies in the fact that at the initial stages of development it is successfully “disguised” as a common acute respiratory disease. Moreover, it is at this time that whooping cough has the maximum contagiousness and is almost instantly transmitted from one person to another. 20 days after the onset of the disease, the risk of infection in healthy people is reduced to zero. Despite this, the baby will suffer from whooping cough symptoms for at least 2 months, and maybe longer.

The first symptoms that indicate the development of whooping cough in a child:

• Sore throat that is not very intense.
• Weak runny nose.
• An increase in body temperature up to 38 ° C, but no more.

If the readings on the thermometer exceed 38 ° C, then whooping cough can be excluded with 100% probability.

After 10 days, these symptoms give way to a cough, which gains strength from time to time. After another 10 days, it takes on the character of seizures, which are very difficult for young children to cope with. They simply begin to choke, as they are deprived of the opportunity to take a full breath. These attacks often end in vomiting. In the period between attacks, the child feels well.

A paroxysmal cough is the main diagnostic criterion for suspecting whooping cough in a child. The cough persists against the background of good health and the absence of other symptoms of the disease.

Hundred-day cough is a sign of whooping cough

The cough specific to whooping cough has a scientific basis.

It is known that from the inside the bronchi are lined with ciliated epithelium, which is in constant motion. This allows mucus to move through the respiratory tract, providing moisture and protection.

Pertussis bacillus "takes root" on these cilia, populating them and multiplying there. Naturally, this responds to irritation of the epithelium. It sends a signal along the nerve endings to the brain, to the cough center, trying in this way to get rid of the pathogenic irritant. As a result, the child develops the same paroxysmal cough that is so difficult for him to cope with.

Whooping cough does not last for 3 months because the body is unable to cope with bacteria. Their number decreases sharply as early as 20 days from the onset of the disease. A prolonged cough torments the person, since during the height of the infection, the cough center was affected, in which a focus of irritation arose. Therefore, doctors use such a concept as "a hundred-day cough" - it characterizes whooping cough better than other symptoms.

It is in paroxysmal cough that the main distinguishing feature of whooping cough lies. The bacterium contributes to the strongest irritation of the cough center, then dies, and the cough persists for a long time. The child continues to suffer from seizures, although his body is already completely clean. It will not be possible to get rid of whooping cough with the help of medicines, you just have to wait until it fades away on its own.

How to relieve a child's condition?

While there is no cure for whooping cough, it is still possible to make it less intense.

It is important to monitor the type of air the child is breathing. If the air is cool and humid, coughing fits will be much easier.

Therefore, the following recommendations must be observed:

• Maintain the room temperature at 15 ° C Celsius above zero. Air humidity should not be less than 30%.
• Spend as much time as possible with your child in the fresh air, hiking.
• During coughing fits, the child should be in an upright position.
• It is impossible for the child to feel fear during the next attack of coughing. It is known that whooping cough has a neuropsychiatric basis, which means it will intensify under the influence of stress. You need to stay calm and try to distract the baby with other activities.
• Every effort should be made to keep the child happy and calm. As an experiment, you can offer him a new toy or turn on an exciting cartoon. Please note that if the child is busy with an interesting activity, coughing fits do not bother him.

Cough medications do not help to reduce the intensity of whooping cough, so it makes no sense to use them. It is much more effective in terms of treatment to spend time outdoors, as well as bring joy to your child. Positive emotions from communicating with parents, watching your favorite cartoons and other activities that are fun for kids allow you to quickly get rid of obsessive coughing attacks.

Doctors strongly recommend "distracting" the child's brain from coughing by engaging him in useful and interesting activities. Therefore, for the time of recovery from whooping cough, you can allow the child even what was previously prohibited.

Whooping cough treatment in children

It is often too late to treat whooping cough with drugs. The fact is that the time when they could bring a real effect is almost always lost.

Pertussis bacillus shows its maximum activity in the first 10-12 days after it enters the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. If during this time period the child receives an antibacterial drug, then the disease will not develop. However, detecting whooping cough at such an early stage is almost impossible. The disease is very successfully disguised as acute respiratory viral diseases that do not require antibiotics.

Pertussis is unable to develop resistance to antibacterial drugs. Therefore, if a person receives an antibiotic in the first 10 days after infection, the disease will be stopped, and all bacteria will be destroyed even before they damage the ciliated epithelium of the bronchi.

The paradox is that the cough manifests itself only after 10-12 days from the onset of the disease. At this time, it makes no sense to take antibiotics, since the body destroyed the bacteria on its own and began to get rid of it.

Therefore, it is safe to say that there is a cure for whooping cough! However, it is almost never possible to start taking it in a timely manner.

Prevention of disease with antibiotics

Erythromycin is an antibacterial drug that can and should be used prophylactically.

Evgeny Olegovich Komarovsky, a well-known pediatrician who strongly opposes the prophylactic intake of antibiotics, has the following point of view on this issue: “Whooping cough is one of the few diseases that requires prophylactic antibiotics. Erythromycin, taken before the onset of cough, as the main symptom of the disease, prevents the development of seizures and prevents all possible complications. Erythromycin does not have a significant negative effect on the intestines, liver and other internal organs. It is safe and effective in preventing whooping cough.”

An antibiotic should be taken when a child or adult has probably had contact with a person with whooping cough. For example, in a situation where there is a child in the family who has been diagnosed with whooping cough, an antibacterial drug should be drunk by all his close circle. And it does not matter whether adults were vaccinated in childhood.

Should you get the whooping cough vaccine?

Whooping cough is a deadly threat to children under 2 years of age. This is due to the underdevelopment of the child's respiratory muscles, which is unable to cope with prolonged coughing attacks. Therefore, the first pertussis vaccine is produced at the age of 3 months. Children do not have innate immunity from the disease.

In the event that an infant falls ill with whooping cough before the age of 3 months, compulsory hospitalization is required.

The whooping cough vaccine is part of the DPT vaccine, during which the child also receives protection against diphtheria and tetanus.

Many parents wonder about the need to revaccinate their child against whooping cough at an older age. Experts point out that revaccination is necessary, since children belong to the group of people most vulnerable to whooping cough. They carry the infection especially hard. Moreover, the younger the child, the more difficult it will be for his body to cope with the disease, or rather, with its main symptom - paroxysmal cough.

Therefore, you should take care of the health and well-being of your own baby and get him vaccinated against this dangerous disease.

Parents should remember that before the vaccine was invented, whooping cough claimed many lives in children. This disease was in the first place among the causes of infant mortality until 1960. Since the start of a massive vaccination campaign, the number of deaths has decreased 45 times. Despite this, children continue to die from whooping cough, and this is due to the carelessness of their parents who refuse to receive the vaccine!

The author of the article: Sokolova Praskovya Fedorovna | Pediatrician

Education: Diploma in the specialty "General Medicine" received at the Volgograd State Medical University. A specialist certificate was immediately received in 2014.