It’s not even flu season yet, but California is being hit by a new epidemic, this time of whooping cough. The highly contagious disease, also known as pertussis, has shown a fourfold increase from last year, with some 910 recorded cases of the disease in the state as of June 15 and another 600 possible cases under investigation.
Infants and children are particularly susceptible to whooping cough, and five babies under three months of age have already died from it. Health officials are therefore encouraging parents to have their children receive booster shots for whooping cough, even if they have already received standard vaccinations. Because babies are particularly susceptible to the disease, parents, siblings, caretakers, and anyone in contact with young infants is also encouraged to get vaccinated.
Once infected, whooping cough generally lasts about six weeks. The initial incubation period lasts between a week and a week and a half, followed by a 1-2 week cattarhal stage, during which symptoms are a light cough and runny nose or sneezing. Though the symptoms are light, this is when the disease is at its most infectious. This is followed by 1-2 weeks of heavy coughing, usually 5-10 coughs at a time, followed by a whooping sound as the patient struggles to regain air. This stage generally lasts 2-8 weeks, though longer cases are not uncommon. Sometimes the coughing fit is followed by vomiting, which can lead to malnutrition. In younger patients especially, the coughing can be so severe that there are brain hemorrhages as the brain strikes the skull.
Although whooping cough is generally detected only after the most severe symptoms exhibit, the disease is preventable through vaccination. The vaccine does, however, wear off after a few years, and should be taken again by adults and older children. Whooping cough is the only vaccine-preventable disease that is associated with increasing deaths in the U.S. California officials warn that the death rate from this spate of whooping cough could be the highest in 50 years. Read more at KCBS and the LA Times.
