Whooping
Cough Symptoms and How They Can Affect You
Whooping cough is a highly contagious
disease that initially fools its sufferers into thinking they only
have a common cold. Although their symptoms may be similar at first,
whooping cough symptoms tend to worsen over time. People of any
age can contract whooping cough, even though there are vaccines
for the infection. Still, those who tend to become ill are infants
who haven’t had all of their vaccines or teenagers whose vaccines
have begun to fade. People contract whooping cough through droplets
that come from the cough of somebody who is already infected.
Whooping cough symptoms usually start off mild with signs such as
a runny nose, dry cough, watery eyes, sneezing, nasal congestion
and a mild fever. Once a person has been infected with the bacterium,
whooping cough symptoms begin to appear within 3 to 12 days. When
a person has full blown whooping cough, symptoms will include:
- Serious coughing attacks that produce thick
phlegm
- Experiencing up to 15 coughs in a row that
end and begin with a “whoop” sound when you’re
coming up for air
- Children turning blue or red, or vomiting
from coughing so forcefully
- Feeling tired from all of the powerful coughing
Symptoms of whooping cough aren’t
the same as those of people with bronchitis, but it is said that
the cough sounds similar. Infants will exhibit the same whooping
cough symptoms, but they may not make an actual whooping sound or
if they do, it is quieter than older children’s. Sufferers
may rupture capillaries on the skin surface of their upper bodies
from the coughing, while other may even fracture a rib if the coughing
is severe.
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