LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The CDC reports that California is experiencing a nationwide spike in whooping cough cases.
It is causing concern for those most vulnerable to bacterial diseases. It is spread through airborne droplets and can survive on clothing and surfaces for up to five days. Symptoms often begin as a cold and progress to a coughing attack that can last several weeks.
The scariest sound of a cough is the sound of young lungs, which are most vulnerable to infection, gasping for air.
Symptoms include a wheezing cough, runny nose, and nasal congestion.
“Whooping cough is called whooping cough because the diaphragm is compressing the lungs and forcing them up to try to get any foreign objects out,” said Dr. Gabriel Pina, a pediatric hospitalist at Loma Linda University’s School of Child Health. said.
What’s even scarier is when you can’t hear the baby’s breathing.
“They develop apnea because their diaphragm literally can’t do that. So they just stop breathing for more than 20 seconds, which is scary,” Pina said.
The CDC reports that the number of pertussis cases is the highest in a decade, with more than 17,000 cases reported to date.
There are five times as many cases in the United States as there were last year, many of them in California.
“It seems like it’s coming back with a vengeance,” Pina said.
Pertussis numbers are returning to pre-pandemic levels, when masks and social isolation were more common and many families skipped childhood vaccinations.
“If you live in an area where people are not regularly vaccinated, they are at increased risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough,” she says.
Infants under one year of age are at the highest risk of developing infections and serious complications, with one-third of them ending up in the hospital.
Whooping cough is a respiratory tract infection that can usually be treated with antibiotics, which can only prevent further spread of the bacteria.
Adults, especially those with weakened immune systems and the elderly, should receive the Tdap booster vaccine every 10 years, while pregnant women are recommended to receive the vaccine at 27 weeks of pregnancy.
“We want to make sure that the antibodies that were built up during the third trimester of pregnancy are passed on to the baby to provide maximum protection,” Pina says.
Pina expects the number of infections to rise further and recommends getting vaccinated, keeping newborns at home and avoiding crowds.
“Wash your hands. Wash your hands. And if you feel at all sick, please wear a mask, because you are helping to prevent the spread of infection,” Pina said.
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