Whooping cough more and more often attacks adults, although for many years it was considered a childhood disease. Why Do Adults Get Whooping Cough? Because whooping cough vaccines, which they were vaccinated with in childhood, stop protecting them after 8-10 years. Specialists believe that every third patient with whooping cough is an adult.

Whooping cough is an infectious disease caused by whooping coughBordetella pertussis , manifested by a paroxysmal, choking cough with a characteristic wheezing breath that resembles a rooster crowing.

It is not true, however, thatwhooping cough in adultshas the same symptoms aswhooping cough in children . The symptoms of whooping cough depend on both on the age and the degree to which the body is immune to this disease.

An adult who was vaccinated as a child may get sick in a completely different way than a child. Whooping cough will then be much milder, and the only symptom of it may be a cough, which may last for several weeks. A person unaware of the infection may underestimate it (especially if he smokes) by infecting others, including immunocompromised people, infants and young children for whom whooping cough can be an extremely serious disease.

Whooping cough in adults: causes

Whooping cough is very contagious - it spreads easily by airborne droplets and infects 95 percent of non-immune people. For many years, thanks to preventive vaccinations, cases of whooping cough have been relatively rare. Unfortunately, the vaccine loses its power after up to ten years, and this, according to doctors, is causing an increase in the disease among adolescents and, above all, among adults.

Because whooping cough was rare until recently, few doctors of the younger generation can "by ear", after hearing the characteristic rooster crowing, recognize whooping cough - so often only laboratory tests remain, and these are paid. Added to this is the reluctance of both patients and doctors to look for the causes of persistent cough.

Whooping cough in adults: why is it dangerous?

Whooping cough in adults is dangerous for two reasons:

  • first, untreated whooping cough can lead to pneumonia and inner ear inflammation and even empyema and emphysemalungs;
  • secondly, a sick adult can easily transfer bacteria, infects other people, which can end very badly, especially in the case of newborns and infants, who receive the first dose of the vaccine at 2 months of age, and have full immunity only after the third the dose given at the age of two.

Whooping cough vaccines are safe for adults

Pertussis vaccines safe for adults have appeared on the market - it is worth using them, especially when you have newborns or infants in your environment that can be infected. Interestingly, whooping cough vaccines also protect against polio and tetanus, to which adults have lost their immunity as well, and which should be repeated every 10 years.

Category:

Infectious diseases