Whooping Cough Causes

Medical Name: Pertussis

What are the causes of the whooping cough ?

Whooping cough is a serious bacterial infection which is caused by Bordetella pertussis or B. parapertussis bacterium. This can cause inflammation that narrows breathing tubes in your lungs. This narrowing leaves you gasping for air (resulting in sucking of air with a high-pitched "whoop" ) just after frequent coughing.

Pertussis is a highly contagious disease and spreads from person to person very easily through direct contact. It can easily be spread through the droplets of an infected person which come from the mouth of infected person when he coughs or sneezes or talks. Coughing adolescents and adults (usually not recognized as having pertussis) are the major reservoir for Bordetella pertussis and are the usual sources for the initial case in infants and children.

Persons treated with antibiotics are contagious until the first 5 days of appropriate antibiotic treatment have been completed.

Initially Pertussis was only thought to be a disease occurring in children, but recent studies have shown that adults are also becoming susceptible to whooping cough and share a part of 25% of cases. The disease, however, tends to be in its mild form in adults-often just a persistent cough that is much like an upper respiratory infection or cold. Because of this fine distinction, the diagnosis of whooping cough is frequently missed in adults and thus allows the bacteria to spread to more susceptible infants and children.