Whooping Cough

Today I write an article to inform my classmates about an extremely contagious disease floats around Colorado and now inside our Fossil community. The Whooping Cough is very easy to catch so it’s very important to wash your hands and take care of yourselves for the holidays and finals. I recently developed symptoms of Whooping cough, also known as Pertussis, and was stuck at home for the week recovering.

A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) tells a similar story, showing that among the various whooping cough outbreaks that have occurred across the country throughout the past few years, “as many as 80 percent of those affected had already received multiple Tdap vaccinations, some up to six doses. What this implies, of course, is that not only is the Tdap vaccine medically useless, but it may also be the driving force behind the outbreaks themselves.” Said abcnews.go.com

According to www.nlm.nih.gov So far “some 18,000 cases of pertussis have been reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently, a figure that is more than twice the number seen at this point a year ago.” At the current rate, the number of those affected for the entire year will be the highest since 1959, stated by The Associated Press.

In the last two weeks of October, 100 cases of whooping cough were reported in Colorado, according to the state health department. “Colorado has had epidemic levels of whooping cough, or pertussis, in the last two years, including 1,116 cases so far this year. Last year was the worst year on record for whooping cough in Colorado with 1,494 cases reported.” Stated by www.nlm.nih.gov

Something to keep in mind is that Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory bacterial infection that spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or even sneezes. “It often starts with cold-like symptoms, including sneezing, runny nose, low-grade fever and a mild cough” www.medicalnewstoday.com said.