Whooping-cough (Pertussis) is an infectious disease which often occurs in epidemics; it is more common in childhood, and generally occurs only once in the same individual. Abortive attacks may occur and not be recognised. The characteristic symptom is the peculiar cough which gives the disease its descriptive name. The infectious agent is the Bacillus pertussis.
The disease is usually divided into four periods: (1) incubation; (2) the catarrhal stage; (3) the sparmodic, or paroxysmal, stage; (4) the stage of decline. The incubation may vary between 7 and 14 days. In the catarrhal stage the child may be feverish and has a persistent cough; the third stage is characterised by a convulsive paroxysmal cough, occurring especially at night and attended by long-continued hissing convulsive breathing with rattling in the air passages. This is succeeded by several short efforts to expel the breath, following each other in quick succession. The long convulsive breathing, attended by the whooping sound or crowing, is immediately repeated; these paroxysms continue until a small quantity of thick slimy ropy mucus is thrown up by expectoration or vomiting, when the breathing again becomes free. During these paroxysms the patient appears to be about to suffocate with congestion of the face, shedding of tears, sweating about the head and forehead, and such distress that he often lays hold of something for support. Blood sometimes starts from the nostrils and a child may involuntarily pass water or evacuate the bowels. In spring and autumn the disease most commonly prevails. It is not generally dangerous except in young children under five years of age. Research Whooping-Cough
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Abbreviations
Medicine
Research Whooping-Cough
