The Dangers of Whooping Cough in Children: Symptoms, Complications, and Prevention.

The only cough in children that should scare parents. Dr. Mihai Craiu: It can lead to the death of children under 1 year old.

According to pediatrician Mihai Craiu, the only cough that should alarm parents is the convulsive one, also called “donkey cough”. This is an infectious-contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis and is commonly found in childhood. At young ages, whooping cough increases the risk of pneumonia and other severe complications. Unvaccinated infants and young children are the categories most exposed and susceptible to the disease.

A cough is normal if it lasts less than a month

“A child’s cough is a reflex mechanism. That is, it is an act that protects our airways. There should only be air in the airway, not pus, secretions, milk, food or other foreign bodies. When, however, something passes the vocal cords, descending to the lungs, the cough receptors in the respiratory mucosa (a kind of motion sensors) trigger the reflex act.

It happens just like in other parts of the body. When something gets in our eyes, we start to blink and produce tears. When it enters the nose, we start to sneeze and produce some nasal fluid.

Anything other than fresh air could irritate the respiratory mucosa and trigger a cough reflex in the child, especially in very young children who do not know how to expectorate or blow their nose well. This is a normal reflex and can last for several weeks after a common cold. More precisely, up to 4 weeks”, says Dr. Craiu in a post on the Facebook page The Virtual Hospital for Children.

On the other hand, chronic cough, produced by important diseases, lasts more than 4 weeks, daily, in children.

“If a child does not have a high fever, does not have intense pain, does not have difficulty breathing and does not have cyanosis (he is not bruised on the tongue, lips or nails), we should have a little patience… In a previously healthy child and vaccinated with the vaccines from the national scheme is extremely unlikely to make the cough life-threatening. With one exception, whooping cough, popularly called whooping cough,” adds Dr. Craiu, who demonstrates in a video what this type of cough sounds like in children.

In Romania, unfortunately, fewer and fewer children receive the recommended vaccines, it shows dATES UNICEF.

“These data raise a worrying alarm. We cannot allow reliance on routine vaccines to become another casualty of the pandemic. In this case, the next wave of deaths could be that of children suffering from measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.

We must know how to recognize whooping cough or “whooping cough” because it can lead to the death of children under 1 year of age!

Whooping cough, whooping cough: symptoms

Onset symptoms are nonspecific, with rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, sneezing, red and watery eyes, mild fever, lethargy, and dry cough, which correspond to the first stage of the disease (catarrhal).

Then the cough becomes severe, symptoms worsen, mucus builds up inside the airways and causes episodes of excruciating, uncontrollable coughing.

There are numerous and rapid paroxysmal coughing fits and the end of the coughing fit is followed by inspiratory effort and a high-pitched wheezing noise. This is the second stage of the disease (paroxysmal). It can be accompanied by cyanosis and vomiting.

Infants and young children have an intensely affected general condition, with fits of coughing accompanied by apnea and cyanosis, even convulsions. Between attacks the general condition is good, without signs of illness. Paroxysms occur more frequently at night and can reach up to 20-40 attacks in 24 hours. In this stage, coughing fits increase in frequency during the first 2 weeks, stagnate for 2-3 weeks, and then gradually decrease.

The paroxysmal stage may last 1-6 weeks and may persist for up to 10 weeks. Infants under 6 months are more prone to complications because they cannot sustain the effort of coughing.

In the one ofthe third stage (convalescence), recovery is gradual, the cough subsides and disappears in 2-3 weeks. Paroxysms can recur several months after the onset of the disease in the case of subsequent respiratory infections.

Teenagers, adults and children partially protected by vaccination can become infected with Bordetella pertussis, but the disease is milder than in infants and young children. In these people, disease episodes can be asymptomatic or in the form of a mild non-specific cough that lasts no more than 7 days. Elderly people, even if they do not develop mild forms, can transmit the pathogen to unimmunized susceptible people.