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Scientific American presents House Call Doctor by Quick & Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick & Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies.

This is an unnecessary article. It’s unnecessary because the disease I am going to talk about can be prevented. This disease affects infants and children, and it kills. I am talking about whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

What Is Whooping Cough?
Pertussis is an infection caused by a bacteria named bordetella pertussis. The infection is spread through the air when a person coughs, which means that it is easily spread from an infected person to a susceptible one.

What Are the Symptoms of Whooping Cough?
A classic infection with pertussis goes through several stages:

Stage 1: Incubation:  The incubation stage is the time when the infection is present but before symptoms show up, and it’s generally 7-10 days. This long incubation phase makes it difficult to tell where a person got the infection

Stage 2: Catarrhal: Catarrh comes from a greek word meaning “to run down,” and is just a fancy way of saying a person has a runny nose. I guess calling it the “snot phase” wouldn’t sit well with civilized professionals. This phase lasts 1-2 weeks, and looks pretty much like a common cold.

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2 Comments

1. 1. Patrick Thomas 09:02 AM 9/12/12

   Here's a collection of mainstream news stories and studies which prove the vaccine is causing the bacteria to mutate - AND - that the overwhelming majority who contract WC are fully vaccinated:
   
   http://www.facebook.com/WhoopingCoughVaccineIsMakingMattersWorse
   
   Or
   
   http://www.dailypaul.com/167931/a-collection-of-mainstream-news-reports-and-studies-exploding-the-whooping-cough-vaccine-myth
   

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2. 2. Patrick Thomas 09:04 AM 9/12/12

   So-called "cocooning" of babies has no scientific basis
   .
   (Vaccinating adults to protect children - according to scientists/studies - has NOT been proven to work):
   
   (Excerpt): "One strategy to prevent whooping cough in young infants is to vaccinate the adults in frequent contact with them, a practice known as "cocooning." However, cocooning is resource-intensive, and studies on its effectiveness are lacking, the researchers said."
   
   http://news.yahoo.com/whooping-cough-vaccine-may-wane-pre-teens-163731749.html?_esi=1
   
   --------------------------------------------------------
   
   ‎(Australia ends free pertussis vaccines for adults because ‘cocooning' is ineffective in protecting kids):
   
   "PARENTS across Australia will no longer receive free whooping cough vaccinations because it is not effective in protecting newborns from the potentially deadly illness, a parliamentary committee has heard." "The PBAC, which is totally independent and very expert, has determined that there is no clinical effectiveness of this strategy," Professor Brook said. He said this had made it clear the cocooning strategy should not be continued. "So all jurisdictions who have been in this program will be effectively ceasing the cocooning strategy as of the end of June this year." "There has been a national committee meet to look at this and to make decisions on the basis of the best scientific evidence available ... the evidence is that the strategy has not been effective."
   
   http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/states-ending-free-parent-whooping-vaccine/story-e6frfku0-1226350174856
   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   (Mainstream proof that vaccinating adults does NOT protect infants):
   
   "Although intuitively we suspect that immunizing adults will prevent or reduce transmission to infants, there is no conclusive evidence that this is true."
   
   http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/540240

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