Contents
– Almost the entire adult population of Poland has no immunity to whooping cough, and it is a disease of all age groups – warns prof. Adam Antczak, head of the General and Oncological Pulmonology Clinic of the Medical University of Lodz.
- Whooping cough is spread mainly through droplets or direct contact. Sick people are the reservoir of the disease, in the first weeks of the disease the infectivity reaches as much as 80%.
- On average, four out of ten adults over the age of 60 experience complications from whooping cough. The risk of their occurrence increases with age
- A person vaccinated against whooping cough in childhood is not immune as an adult. It is a vaccination that needs to be repeated, which hardly anyone knows
- Check your health. Just answer these questions
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
The nationwide survey of Poles’ knowledge about whooping cough was carried out in March last year shows that we associate this dangerous disease mainly with infections in children and perceive it as rare. Only every third respondent knows that this ailment also affects adults, and less than 1/3 of Poles are aware that some vaccinations, including those for whooping cough, should be regularly repeated in adulthood. Herd immunity would help to avoid infection among patients from risk groups, i.e. young children and seniors, but there is practically no such immunity in Poland, specialists say. Unfortunately, few people know that booster vaccinations protect against infection caused by pertussis bacillus.
What are the symptoms of whooping cough?
Whooping cough, otherwise known as whooping cough, is an extremely contagious acute bacterial disease caused by the aerobic pertussis. This bacterium produces a pertussis toxin responsible for the necrosis of the epithelium of the upper respiratory tract, which interferes with mucus production and affects chronic, paroxysmal coughing attacks. The course of the disease is also characterized by a feeling of dyspnea, vomiting, as well as general weakness, sore throat, runny nose, conjunctivitis and low-grade fever.
Whooping cough is one of the most common causes of chronic cough among adolescents and young adults. In the catarrhal phase, the so-called catarrhal symptoms, which after about 2 weeks turn into paroxysmal, dry cough, occurring mainly at night. It is accompanied by a characteristic whistle, and the face often turns red or blue during an attack. In young children, the only symptoms of the disease may be apnea and seizures.
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A disease that is dangerous for children
A persistent cough in whooping cough lasts between 2 and 8 weeks. The recovery period is three to four months: the coughing attacks gradually subside, although they may also periodically worsen in the event of overexertion or co-infections, when two or more pathogens are contaminated simultaneously.
The greatest risk of disease complications appears in infants, especially up to 6 months of age. In children up to the third month of age, the risk of hospitalization and even death from whooping cough increases. Complications include both the respiratory system with pneumonia, atelectasis, i.e. a state of reduced aeration of the lung or pneumothorax, and the nervous system with seizures or bleeding into the central nervous system.
Some of the complications are directly related to overexertion during coughing. These include abdominal and inguinal hernias, musculoskeletal injuries, rectal prolapse, or conjunctival haemorrhages.
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Vaccine without lifetime guarantee
Whooping cough is spread mainly through droplets or direct contact. Sick people are the reservoir of the disease, in the first weeks of the disease the infectivity reaches as much as 80%. The hatching period for whooping cough is, according to various sources, from 5 to 21 days.
The period of infectivity of the disease ranges from a few days before the onset of cough to three weeks after its appearance. The introduction of antibiotic therapy terminates the infectivity of the patient after only five days.
According to the Protective Vaccination Program, the whooping cough vaccine is obligatory in Poland. The first of the four basic doses is given to your baby as early as the second month of life, and the next ones at 3–4, 5–6 months. and 16–18. month of life.
At 6 and 14 years of age, single booster doses are given, but regular vaccination against whooping cough is recommended for all adults, because the vaccination against whooping cough, which we take in the first years of life, does not give us lifelong protection against the disease and requires booster doses.
Let’s vaccinate against whooping cough every 10 years
– Almost the entire adult population of Poland has no immunity to whooping cough, and it is a disease of all age groups – warns prof. Adam Antczak, head of the General and Oncological Pulmonology Clinic of the Medical University of Lodz.
Vaccination is the only effective method to prevent whooping cough epidemics.
– The only way to protect yourself from whooping cough is vaccination repeated every 10 years, the easiest way around the anniversary of birth: 30, 40, 50 years – says the specialist in infectious diseases, Dr. hab. Ernest Kuchar, chairman of the Polish Society of Vaccinology.
This is important because, on average, four out of ten adults over the age of 60 experience complications from whooping cough. The risk of their occurrence increases with age.
In Poland, the highest peak of incidence took place in 2016, when almost 7 were confirmed. cases. It is encouraging, however, that in the first months of 2021, the number of cases was record low – from January 1 to June 15, only 76 cases of whooping cough were registered. This result was made possible by pandemic constraints: social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks.
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