Vaccination against whooping cough – indications, contraindications, risks associated with the vaccine

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Whooping cough is a serious, acute and chronic infectious disease. It is caused by pertussis bacilli which lead to inflammation of the trachea and bronchi, destroying the mucosa. Today, you can protect yourself from the disease thanks to preventive vaccinations. Find out what the symptoms of the disease are and when you can get vaccinated.

What is whooping cough?

Whooping cough is also called whooping cough. It is a serious, acute, infectious disease of the respiratory tract. Inflammation caused by bacteria called whooping cough bacteria develops in the trachea and bronchi. The disease manifests itself primarily by a strong, paroxysmal cough. The cough is chronic and is accompanied by shortness of breath and inspiratory wheezing. The patient may also vomit during the attacks. The disease poses the greatest risk to newborns and infants, but it can become ill at any age. The transition of the disease does not give immunity.

How can you get whooping cough?

You can catch pertussis from a sick person. This applies to both children with full-blown disease and adults, who usually have mild disease. The easiest way to get infected with the disease is in the first 2 weeks after getting sick, but properly introduced antibiotics can shorten the contagiousness even up to 5 days.

It is worth remembering that you cannot become a carrier of whooping cough, which means that you cannot become infected from healthy people. The disease spreads very easily. After contact with a sick person, the risk is up to 80%. Pertussis sticks spread by droplets, i.e. when coughing or sneezing, and through direct contact.

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How is whooping cough?

The disease breeds for about 7-10 days, and occasionally 3 weeks. The disease lasts a long time and is chronic. The cough may last for several months. Coughing usually gets worse at night. However, symptoms depend on the patient’s age and general health. Adults usually have whooping cough very mildly, but the cough lasts for several months. Often, this symptom is not associated with the disease and these people may unknowingly infect those around them. In adults, whooping cough usually occurs in two phases, and in children in three:

1. the first phase – catarrhal – it is difficult to distinguish it from an acute cold. Symptoms are typical of upper respiratory tract infections and last for about 1-2 weeks;
2. the second phase – coughing attacks – lasts about 2-4 weeks. Symptoms vary in severity and depend on the age and immunity of the patient. In young children, there are attacks of breathlessness, watery eyes, redness of the face, apnea, and cyanosis. Apnea is very dangerous, especially in young children. In older children, seizures appear more and more often, and in unvaccinated children, even several dozen seizures per day may occur. Seizures may appear under the influence of, for example, emotions, eating, or yawning. Adults develop a chronic dry cough that becomes more severe at night and soothes over time;
3. phase three – recovery – coughing attacks become less frequent and less intense. However, the patient may cough for a very long time. Nocturnal coughing attacks are milder, but persist even for several consecutive weeks. Coughing may occur due to, for example, emotions or temperature changes. The coughing persists due to damage to the respiratory tract by the toxins secreted by the bacteria. These toxins have damaged the mucosa and antibiotic treatment only kills the bacteria and does not alleviate the clinical symptoms.

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What are the complications of whooping cough?

Complications, as well as symptoms, depend on the patient’s age and immunity. The younger a person gets, the greater the risk of whooping cough becomes. For babies whooping cough is very dangerous and can even be fatal. Complications include:

1. pneumonia;
2. otitis media;
3. uninterested;
4. bronchiectasis;
5. pertussis brain injury (can lead to permanent disability);
6. sleep disturbance;
7. urinary incontinence;
8. weight loss;
9. inguinal hernia;
10. rib fractures;
11. bleeding from the brain.

What is the treatment of whooping cough?

In the acute phase, whooping cough is treated with antibiotics to stop the progression of the disease. It should be remembered that if the disease develops, the antibiotics administered can only shorten the duration of the infection, but no longer affect the symptoms of the disease. After 5 days of using the antibiotic, the patient is no longer infectious. Unfortunately, there are no proven drugs that can relieve cough in advanced stages of the disease.

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How can the disease be prevented?

Pertussis prevention includes regular immunization. For infants, the disease poses such a great risk that vaccines are used in almost all children in the world. Safe acellular vaccines containing individual purified pertussis antigens, which are very well tolerated, are used today in many developed countries.

Thanks to the popularization of whooping cough vaccination, it was possible to control the disease in infants, but it did not completely eliminate the disease. This is because even having whooping cough does not give you full immunity. Therefore, vaccination should be repeated every 5-10 years. Vaccinations taken will only protect against a severe form of the disease. However, they will not protect against mild disease, which is manifested only by coughing.

What are the symptoms of whooping cough?

A signal that should raise our suspicions is a cough that persists for more than 7 days or more, worsens at night and has a paroxysmal character. The longer it persists, the greater the risk that we are dealing with whooping cough.

Initially whooping cough is difficult to distinguish from a normal respiratory infection, however, if symptoms are accompanied by a frenzy after coughing or vomiting, it may indicate whooping cough.

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Who should get vaccinated against whooping cough and when?

The pertussis vaccine is always given as a DTP vaccine, i.e. a vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. It is administered subcutaneously or intramuscularly. It can be administered as a highly combination vaccine or separately.

In children, the vaccine should be administered according to the recommendations in the compulsory immunization program. Each child should be vaccinated with four doses of the vaccine at 2, 3-4,5, 6-16 and 18-6 months of age. In addition, your child should be given a booster dose of the vaccine at the age of XNUMX.

Adults should have a booster dose of the vaccine once every 10 years. It is recommended for adolescents aged 14-19, people working in neonatal and pediatric wards, pregnant women (preferably in the third trimester) and anyone who has contact with infants.

Who should not get vaccinated?

The contraindication to whooping cough vaccination is:

1. an anaphylactic reaction that appeared after the previous dose of the vaccine;
2. allergy to any component of the vaccine;
3. severe encephalopathy within 7 days of previous dose administration.

If other adverse vaccine reactions have developed after the administration of the previous dose, the physician must assess the risks of administering the next dose. He can, for example, change the formulation.

A contraindication to vaccination will also be acute febrile illness and transient neurological disorders.

What is the risk of the whooping cough vaccine?

Vaccination against whooping cough carries some risks. Local or general vaccination adverse reactions may occur following vaccination. They appear once in 10 whole cell vaccines administered and twice as often with acellular vaccines.

Local symptoms such as pain, tenderness, itching and swelling at the injection site are common. As for the general symptoms, there may be fever, lack of appetite, sleep disturbances, drowsiness, anxiety.

Rarely, the child develops anxiety, tearfulness, fever, vomiting, pallor, high fever, hypotonic-hyporesponsive episodes, or a granuloma or an abscess at the injection site.

Anaphylactic, neurological or encephalopathic reactions may occur very rarely.