Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Polish lawmakers approve more talks on banning vaccinations

Lawmakers from Poland's conservative ruling party have approved further parliamentary discussion over a controversial plan to abolish compulsory vaccinations for children, including those against serious diseases such as ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Why whooping cough is making a comeback

After a week with a dry cough, 16-year-old Ian McCracken started experiencing middle-of-the-night coughing fits so severe, he couldn't talk. He returned home from his first trip to the urgent care clinic in mid-July with ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Whooping cough vaccine: The power of first impressions

The current whooping cough vaccine was universally adopted in the US in 1996 to replace the original vaccine based on killed Bordetella pertussis because of a stronger safety profile. The new formulation was found to be effective ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Whooping cough more widespread than previously known

New research from Public Health Ontario (PHO) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) suggests that whooping cough cases in Ontario are happening much more frequently than previously known, reinforcing the ...

Pediatrics

Why is whooping cough on the rise?

Watching an infant suffer through a bout of whooping cough is agonizing. Blue face scrunched with effort, the baby strains to take a breath through a narrowed windpipe. She struggles, choking, for what seems like eons. Finally, ...

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Pertussis

Pertussis, also known as the whooping cough, is a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It derived its name from the "whoop" sound made from the inspiration of air after a cough. A similar, milder disease is caused by B. parapertussis. Although many medical sources describe the whoop as "high-pitched", this is generally the case with infected babies and children only, not adults.

Despite generally high coverage with the DTP and DTaP vaccines, pertussis is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths world-wide. Ninety percent of all cases occur in the Third World. Canada is the only rich, industrial nation in which pertussis is still commonplace, though Australia saw a large increase in cases during a 2008/09 outbreak.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA