Talk:Pertussis
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[edit] Additional Information
"All About Whooping Cough" http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=2340 has some more detail about each stage and a slightly clearer description (easy to understand) of the symptoms at each stage.
[edit] Outbreaks
I recently heard there was an outbreak of whooping cough in Iowa City sometime in the last year or so. Does anyone have a source on the prevalence of outbreaks in the Western world? -- Wechselstrom 07:53, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
--I had pertussis towards the middle of 2005, I live in San Diego. The doctor said that there were over 300 cases in San Diego in and 2000 in San Diego. I googled this and found it to be correct: [1] Amplus Quem 17:31, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I've noticed for the past few weeks that I and about half the people I know have a really bad, rattling cough... didn't think much of it until I read this article in the Boston Globe about an an outbreak in a hosptial nearby. Not to say that we've all got pertussis, but it's something to think about. According to the article, "So far this year, 780 cases of whooping cough, known as pertussis, have been reported in Massachusetts, said Donna Rheaume, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health." I guess it's not as rare as people think, but I don't have any real statistics on it (aside from that one). -- Dirk Gently 17:21, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
"However, in the fall of 2006, New Trier High School suffered a large pertussis outbreak with thirteen students falling victim to the virus. [1]" - I think this doesn't belong here. For starters, pertussis is not caused by a virus. Also, an outbreak of 13 cases in a high school of 4000 students is not that large. Outbreaks in middle and high schools are not uncommon. I would suggest a more general statement about outbreaks in adolescents or one about outbreaks in intitutions (schools, hospitals, etc). A reference to that outbreak could be used as an example, although a reference from a published scientific article might be more appropriate. Hunterkb 01:51, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I think maybe an outbreak section would be appropriate. Specific outbreaks probably don't belong in the introductory paragraph. Also, I edited the information about New Trier: I couldn't find a source for "some thousand" students vaccinated (the latest article I found said ~200, but it only mentioned the first day). Hunterkb 19:56, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Missing Citations
These figures need a citation:
- "There are 30–50 million cases per year, and about 300,000 deaths per year"
- " Ninety percent of all cases occur in developing countries"
This statement could use a more precise statistic:
- "Most deaths occur in children under one year of age"
Mystic eye 23:44, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] July 2006 news
There has just been study in Oxford, United Kingdom, which says that a surprisingly high number of children may be having whooping cough, and if Wikipedia is to retain status for being up-to-date with its articles, this should be mentioned here. The survey is covered in the "Independent" newspaper for July 7, 2006. I shall leave some who is medically qualified and who knows about this survey to add to the article. ACEO 19:37, 8 July 2006 (UTC) According to the article quoted above, children with a cough lasting more than fourteen days were studied in Oxford, United Kingdom, and nearly four in ten were found to be infected with bordetella pertussis. The report also says that more than 85% of this sample caught this infection in spite of vaccination. The report also refers to how research into this recent study has recently been covered in the online edition of the British Medical Journal. ACEO 18:25, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
Just thought I would add a link to the above mentioned article: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1164554.ece 70.48.4.35 04:14, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
Here is the reference for the BMJ study : Harnden et al., British Medical Journal, 22 July 06, Vol 33, pp. 174-177. Pertussis infections in the UK children described in this study may simply be a consequence of waning immunity from the pertussis immunizations that the children received as infants. As discussed by the authors of the paper, the UK only recently changed their pertussis immunization policy to include a preschool booster dose. Because the study was initiated before the change in policy, none of the chilren enrolled in the study (ages 5-16) had received a booster shot at age four. Therefore, their last immunization with the pertussis vaccine was at an age of 4 months, which would give immunity to B. pertussis plenty of time to wane until the children reached the age at which they were enrolled in the study. The authors state that the recent policy change may shift the age of pertussis infections in the UK upwards to adolescents, which is what is observed in other countries that already include the preschool booster dose. I'm not able to retrieve the newspaper article mentioned above, but I get the impression that the results of this study is being interpreted by the press as evidence that the pertussis vaccine is no longer effective. However, the authors in the paper clearly state that the results could be a consequence of waning immunity, which is a problem of all pertussis vaccines in use. It appears that the high pertussis infection rates of children presenting with persistent cough is unique to the UK and may disappear as the preschool dose is introduced. Therefore, I feel that this paper does not merit mention in the article, although I won't object if others feel otherwise. NighthawkJ 03:30, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Vaccine controversy
There used to be a lot of controversy about the safety of whooping cough vaccine. I understand that this has died down now because of a court judgement of some sort (although I don't know whether or not this verdict has been unanimously accepted), but the controversy should still be included here at least as an important historical phenomenon. Ireneshusband 18:09, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
- The controversy was about the whole-cell DTP vaccines which aren't used any more. Those vaccines were associated with high rates of neurologic complications. The US now uses an acellular vaccine that is much safer. A lot of people aren't aware of that and I agree that controversy should be in the vaccine section. I'm not 100% sure of the details of the court case, but I know the lawsuit(s) brought about the creation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (that may not be the correct name); it awards compensation to children who have an adverse event after vaccination regardless of the cause of the event (there are a lot of criteria obviously). Parents don't have to accept but if they do they can't sue the manufacturer; I think they may be still some controversy over that part. Hunterkb 19:46, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
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- I started a section that describes the DTP controversy. Please check for NPOV. NighthawkJ 03:17, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Whooping fits
This article does not do justice to the characteristic "paroxysms" of Whooping that give this disease it's name. The whooping noise is made totally involuntarily by the patient, who is gasping for breath in the middle of an uncontrollable coughing fit. There is nothing minor or cute about this experience; something goes wrong in the throat, making it impossible to breathe. It feels like you are going to choke to death, literally die from lack of air. This is a very serious disease. Since this is a central feature, it would be good if the article stated whether you can indeed die from this, or if it just seems like you might. And at least a link to some resources that would explain what is going wrong with your breathing, associated with the whoop. Doctors in the US today don't seem to know much about this disease, and it is officially hard to test for. But if you have had it, as an adult, you know that you have had a serious, seemingly life-threatening experience. If there are truly other diseases that are associated with the same Whooping symptoms, they should be specifically mentioned and linked to in this article. 69.87.200.105 12:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
