Symptoms Of Whooping Cough

Whooping cough is an infection that is caught by breathing in aerosolized droplets that contain the bacteria, Bordetella pertussis. The disease typically lasts anywhere from a month to almost three months. The incubation period lasts 7-21 days. Then the disease progresses through three phases. A catarrhal phase, paroxysmal phase, and convalescent phase. The symptoms of whooping cough present differently in the first two phases. The catarrhal phase presents symptoms that seem like a typical upper respiratory tract infection. However, in the paroxysmal phase presents a paroxysmal cough. This cough is a rapidly repeating cough, that sometimes causes patients to vomit. The coughing will always causes the patient to struggle taking deep breaths
and cause the noise that gave the cough its name, whooping. Whooping cough can be treated through antibiotics which will help eliminate infection, and by vaccination. Patients will typically recover in two to three weeks during the convalescent phase.