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Yahoo!The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department on Monday announced eight confirmed cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. Although the majority of those affected are adolescents, the afflicted individuals range in age from one month old to 49 years old. The cases were identified between June 1 and June 25.
Whooping cough resembles an ordinary cough in its early onset, but over time may turn more serious. The highly infectious bacterium Bordetella pertussis is especially threatening to infants and is most contagious before the coughing begins. After one to two weeks of typical cold symptoms, the symptoms may accelerate to bursts of numerous rapid coughs that can lead to vomiting and exhaustion. Infants infected with whooping cough risk developing apnea, pneumonia, seizures, and even death. Complications for adults are rare.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department urges individuals experiencing symptoms to contact their healthcare providers.
Katherine Perry is an Independent intern.
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Thanks for the info! My daughter and I contracted what we believe to be pertussis about ten years ago, though by the time our doctors thought that to be the case, we had both been on antibiotics and so the blood tests to confirm it were not done. Apparently when I was born in Canada some decades ago, babies were not immunized against pertussis. When my daughter was an infant she had a very bad reaction to her first DTPT shot and was not given the other pertussis shots...
This is a very difficult illness to cope with. The coughing is so very painful and unrelenting, I actually pulled several muscles in my rib cage and heard a loud popping sound as I damaged one of my ribs. Recovery took a few months and I have had asthma ever since.
I hope that all who think they MIGHT have pertussis take suitable precautions to help prevent the spread and that they get themselves to their doctor to try to prevent the disease from running its full course. I'm not sure that is possible...
As an aside, does no one proof the writing here? I had numerous grammatical and spelling errors pop out at me while reading this piece.
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elaz (anonymous profile)
July 1, 2009 at 10:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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