What is the symptom of whooping cough? Signs and treatment of the disease

Until recently, pertussis was considered to be a childhood disease, but now it can be observed in adolescent and older people. This disease was first described in 1538. Did it the French doctor Guillen de Bayonne. For each disease there is a symptom. Pertussis is no exception. After the end of the incubation period, which lasts from two to twenty-one days, a person has signs of illness. The most characteristic of these is a barking, spasmodic cough.

Symptoms of the disease

Infected with pertussis can only airborne from a sick person, who serves as a source of infection. As soon as the first symptom appears, whooping cough may be accompanied by attacks, during which the patient's face begins to turn blue or blush. It is not excluded the occurrence of nasal bleeding or a small hemorrhage in the eyeballs. At the end of the attack, clear phlegm and, in some cases, vomiting is released.

As soon as pertussis symptoms begin to manifest , treatment and prevention should be aimed at ensuring the patient maximum access to fresh air. Thanks to this, you can reduce the number of attacks, which can be up to fifteen per day. As a rule, the accumulation of stuffy air in the room and is the main cause of exacerbations. The duration of the disease is about thirty days, after which gradually begins to disappear cough, representing the main symptom. Pertussis requires a long enough period of recovery, sometimes its duration reaches several months.

Treatment of disease

Since there is no specific treatment for this disease, it is desirable to eliminate or alleviate the symptom. Pertussis can be dangerous consequences. In children, it provokes the development of otitis media, inflammation of the lungs. For babies, the disease is dangerous asphyxiation.

To ease the patient's condition, he needs rest in a room with constant access to fresh air, consumption of vitamins A and B, plenty of drink in the form of plain water and a small amount of fresh fruit juices.

In the treatment of the disease, the use of antibiotics is considered useless, except that with their help it is possible to prevent the development of infection again and its further transmission. If a baby has a symptom, pertussis has been diagnosed, then the mother is not recommended to stop breastfeeding, as this is a preventive measure, which makes it possible to avoid the development of consequences.

Preventive measures against the development of the disease

To date, a preventive measure to prevent an outbreak of pertussis epidemic is vaccination. However, this does not mean that the vaccinated child will not become ill later.

It happens that there is pertussis in vaccinated children. Symptoms are of a different nature, and the course of the disease is milder than that of a baby who has not been vaccinated. It should be noted that older people carry the disease much easier, they have it in the form of bronchitis, and only an analysis can identify the disease.