Whooping cough symptoms in children

Whooping cough in children is a common disease in children. It is a respiratory infectious disease caused by infection with Bordetella pertussis. Therefore, when preventing whooping cough in children, as long as we stay away from the source of whooping cough and cut off the transmission route of the whooping cough virus, we can effectively prevent the occurrence of whooping cough in children.

We need to treat whooping cough in children in a timely manner, because children's immunity and disease resistance are not as strong as adults. If whooping cough in children is not treated in time, it is easy to cause complications such as pneumonia or even encephalopathy.

Whooping cough is a common respiratory infectious disease in children, which is transmitted by Bordetella pertussis. The main feature is paroxysmal spasmodic cough accompanied by cock-crowing inspiratory sounds.

Symptoms of whooping cough in children: The air inhaled contains the germs and is formed by the patient's sneezing, coughing or talking. What are the symptoms? It starts out like the flu, with runny nose, sneezing, low fever, and a mild cough. Over the next two weeks, the cough gradually intensifies, with violent bouts of coughing that continue and cause difficulty breathing. When this happens, the patient's breathing will have a typical crowing sound. Infants under 6 months old and adults generally do not produce typical cockcrow. Symptoms are milder in adults and adolescents, as well as in children who are not fully immunized

Detailed description of symptoms

The disease can be divided into three stages: the catarrhal stage, which only manifests as upper respiratory tract infection symptoms such as low fever, cough, runny nose, and sneezing. After 7 to 10 days, the disease enters the spasmodic cough stage, characterized by paroxysmal painful coughing. The attacks become increasingly severe, and each coughing fit can last for several minutes. After coughing, there is a long inhalation like a cock crowing. If not treated properly, this period can last 2 to 6 weeks. During the recovery period, the coughing paroxysms gradually decrease or even stop, and this period can last for 2 weeks or longer. If there is a respiratory tract infection, it may cause painful cough again, and the course of the disease may be 2 to 3 months, so it is called "whooping cough".

Etiology and pathogenesis

The air you breathe in contains germs and is created when a sick person sneezes, coughs or talks. Bordetella pertussis belongs to the genus Bordetella. It invades the respiratory mucosa and reproduces in the ciliated epithelium, causing cilia paralysis, epithelial cell necrosis, necrotic epithelium, inflammatory exudates and mucus clearance obstacles, accumulation and retention, and constant stimulation of nerve endings, leading to spasmodic cough. Bronchial obstruction can also cause atelectasis or emphysema.

Above we introduced what whooping cough in children is. We know that whooping cough in children is caused by a virus, so it is easy to prevent whooping cough in children. However, we must treat whooping cough in children in time because whooping cough in children can easily lead to some extremely harmful complications. The above introduces the symptoms of whooping cough in children. I hope it will be useful to everyone.