Whooping Cough

One case of whooping cough has been reported in our English class child care. The child with the illness was in attendance on Friday November 5 and Monday November 8.

If any children that you are aware of were in the centre on these dates, please seek medical attention should any symptoms be present. Here is some information that you might find helpful:

Whooping cough (pertussis) is a serious, contagious respiratory infection caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. The disease begins like a cold and then the characteristic cough develops. This cough may last for months, even after antibiotic treatment is completed and the person is no longer infectious. The ‘whoop’ (which is not always obvious) is due to a deep breath at the end of a bout of coughing. Vomiting after coughing is common. Whooping cough is particularly dangerous for babies aged less than six months. They are affected more seriously by the disease than older children or adults and are more likely to develop complications. One in every 200 babies who contract whooping cough will die. Immunisation is the best way to prevent whooping cough. Whooping cough begins with symptoms similar to those of a cold. These can rapidly progress to include:
Severe cough, which occurs in bouts of coughing
Characteristic ‘whooping’ sound on inhalation
Vomiting at the end of a bout of coughing
Apnoea – the child stops breathing for periods of time and may go blue.These symptoms may be associated with poor appetite, fatigue and dehydration. The person may appear normal between bouts of coughing. During the convalescent phase, the cough gradually decreases but can take weeks to disappear.Babies are at increased riskWhooping cough is most serious in babies under 12 months of age. In young babies less than six months of age, the symptoms can be severe or life threatening. Seek urgent medical attention if your child’s lips or skin go blue (cyanosis) or if they are having breathing difficulties associated with the coughing. Some of the complications of whooping cough in young babies include:
Haemorrhage (bleeding)
Apnoea (stopping breathing for long periods of time)
Pneumonia
Inflammation of the brain
Convulsions and coma
Permanent brain damage
Death.
The Bordetella pertussis bacterium is spread by air-borne droplets from the upper respiratory tract (when the infected person coughs or sneezes) and is highly infectious. The time from infection to appearance of symptoms (incubation period) for whooping cough is between six and 20 days. A person is infectious for the first 21 days of their cough or until they have had five days of a 10-day course of antibiotics. In countries where immunisation rates are high, the risk of catching whooping cough is low. In Victoria, most reports of whooping cough currently occur in adults over 20 years of age. Recent research has shown that parents and family members are the main source of whooping cough infection in their baby. A mother does not pass any protection against whooping cough on to her baby while pregnant or breastfeeding. Whooping cough should be diagnosed and treated immediately if there is a typical history of the disease. There are a number of tests, but they are not always reliable and may take weeks to become positive. Treatment should not be withheld while waiting for these results.