Is whooping cough contagious?

Whooping cough is a relatively common disease. Infants and young children are the main group of people who suffer from it. It is contagious to a certain extent. During the season when whooping cough breaks out, families with children should try to go out as little as possible. Once they are sick, they should receive timely treatment. Generally, it has a certain self-limiting nature. With good treatment, relatively good results can be achieved. For infants and young children, it is necessary to strengthen the prevention of whooping cough in daily life.

Is whooping cough contagious?

Whooping cough is relatively common in life, but many people ignore its treatment. Because most people seek treatment based on the symptom of coughing when they are sick, this delays the best time for treatment and gives whooping cough more opportunities to spread. So, is whooping cough contagious?

Infants and young children are susceptible to this disease, which is highly contagious. Whooping cough is an acute respiratory infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis and is more common in children under 5 years old. It is characterized by paroxysmal productive cough with deep, inspiratory snoring. The incubation period of the disease is usually 7 to 14 days, and up to 21 days. When the disease occurs, symptoms such as flu, cough, runny nose, and low fever appear.

The disease is highly contagious and often causes epidemics. The older the child, the sicker the disease becomes and the more likely they are to die from pneumonia and encephalopathy, with 40% of infants and toddlers dying within 5 months. Over the past 30 years, due to widespread vaccination, the prevalence of pertussis in China has been greatly reduced, and the morbidity and mortality rates have also been significantly reduced.

How to prevent whooping cough infection

Whooping cough is not only contagious, but once infected, it will cause great harm to everyone's normal life. Therefore, in life, everyone must prevent the occurrence of whooping cough in time. So, how to prevent the spread of whooping cough?

1. Control the source of infection: During the epidemic season, the patient should be isolated immediately after diagnosis for 40 days after the onset of the disease, or the contact person should be closely observed for at least 3 weeks after the cough is isolated for 30 days. If necessary, antibiotic preventive treatment should be given as soon as possible.

2. Cut off the transmission route: Since the outside world has weak resistance to Bordetella pertussis, there is no disinfection effect, but the room should be ventilated, clothes should be exposed to the sun, and sputum and oral and nasal secretions should be disinfected.

3. Improve the immunity of the population: The seedlings currently used for pertussis vaccination include whole-cell bacterial vaccine and bacteria-free bacillus vaccine. The whole-bacterial vaccine is a conventional vaccine.

4. Drug prevention: For infants and young children who are weak, have not been vaccinated and have close contact with pertussis patients, 2.5 ml of pertussis immunoglobulin or 10-20 ml of convalescent serum can be injected intramuscularly. Repeat the injection for 1-7 days every 5 days for 3 consecutive times to make them temporarily sick.