PKIDs, or Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases, has teamed up with actress Keri Russell to spread awareness of the very potentially dangerous illness called pertussis. You may know it better by the name ‘whooping cough’. This potentially deadly bacterial infection can strike at any age, but is particularly dangerous for babies. The sounds of pertussis are like no other, marked by a “whoop” made when gasping for breath after a severe coughing attack. You can go to the PKIDs website page for pertussis, and listen to an audio file of what a child with pertussis sounds like. If you’ve ever had a child come down with whooping cough, it’s a sound you never forget.
More than 50 percent of babies with reported cases of pertussis must be hospitalized. The coughing can be so severe as to inhibit eating, drinking, even breathing. Other dangerous symptoms include:
* Babies may bleed behind the eyes and in the brain from coughing.
* The most common complication is bacterial pneumonia. About 1 child in 10 with pertussis also gets pneumonia, and about 1 in every 50 will have convulsions.
* Brain damage occurs in 1 out of every 250 children who get pertussis.
* Pertussis causes about 10-20 deaths each year in the United States.
What’s really scary is that parents are responsible for more than half the cases of pertussis in babies. It’s a bacteria that lives in the mouth and throat, and when an infected adult talks, sneezes or coughs, droplets of the bacteria can be transmitted. The best way to guard against pertussis is to get a vaccination. The DTaP vaccine stands for Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. Adults aged 19 and over should have a single booster shot . Children ages 11 to 18 can also benefit from the booster.
For more information, please visit the PKIDs website. This has not been a paid or sponsored post, I just feel it’s important to spread this information to parents of young children. Thanks for reading.
Here are my two posts on the Silence the Sound of Pertussis campaign:
Why Vaccinate? and PKids’ Campaign: Silence the Sound of Pertussis. I’m keeping a list of bloggers contributing to the campaign there; I’ve added your blog to the list.
Two things to know:
The immunity given by vaccination in infancy wanes after about 10 years. The CDC recommends that teens receive a booster, in the form of Tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap).
Did you know that a person with pertussis is contagious long before the cough develops?
From Pertussis.com.
Young infants are at highest risk for pertussis-related complications, including seizures, encephalopathy (swelling of the brain), otitis media (severe ear infection), anorexia (severe restriction of food intake) and dehydration.
Pneumonia is the most common complication and cause of infant pertussis-related deaths.
Whooping cough can be life-threatening for infants who are not fully vaccinated. In fact, over the last decade, 80 percent of whooping cough deaths occurred in infants under 6 months of age.
In adolescents and adults, whooping cough can cause severe coughing that can make it hard to breathe, eat, or sleep, and can result in cracked ribs, pneumonia, or hospitalization.
Here’s an adult’s description of her recent bout with pertussis
Liz Ditz’s last blog post..PKids’ Campaign: Silence the Sound of Pertussis