Whooping Cough

Whooping Cough Everyday parents tell their kids over and over again to “wash your hands!”, but how many kids do you think really listen to their parents? I know I never listened to them when it came to staying clean and keeping me healthy when I was younger and lived at home. Many people don’t understand how much washing your hands really helps prevent one from germs and catching diseases. The cleaner you try to keep yourself, the less likely your chances to catch a bad disease. One disease in particular is spread very easily among people. This infection is called Whooping Cough. “Whooping cough, or pertussis, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussi.” The reason for the name is because when you have this illness, the end of your cough has a “whooping” sound. The reason it creates this whooping sound is because of the “inflammation and swelling of the laryngeal structures that vibrate when there is a rapid inflow of air during inspiration.” When one has this infection, it usually last for months and even maybe years. The target person for whooping cough is most often infants or young children who are most sustainable to illnesses. Elderly people are also very likely to get this illness for the same reason as infants; their bodies are too weak to fight off diseases, so they are the ones who catch it the easiest. Mature bodies don’t catch diseases as easily and mature bodies are strong enough to fight most infections off. (Web MD) The first outbreaks of Whooping Cough was discovered in the 16th century, but was not identified until 1906. During this time before a vaccination was available, there was over 250,000 cases per year just in the United States. There were also around 9,000 deaths. The first vaccination for Whooping Cough was introduced in the 1940s. After this was introduced, the cases of Whooping Cough decreased by 99% in the United States. It all started over again in the 1980s, though.

Cited: http://children.webmd.com/tc/whooping-cough-pertussis-topic-overview (Most of my research was from Web MD) http://www.medicinenet.com/pertussis/page2.htm http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/whooping_cough.html# New York Times article online - http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/pertussis/overview.html?scp=1-spot&sq=Whooping%20Cough&st=cse