Seville, 13 (European News Agency)
Andrés Osuna Vera, a pediatrician at Seville’s Quirónsalud Infanta Luisa Hospital, warned that up to 90 percent of family members could be infected with the disease. Additionally, it warned that 50% to 80% of contacts within the school may also be infected. It is an endemic infection in Spain but has cyclic peaks of prevalence, particularly in winter and spring.
In a press release, the hospital noted that the latest report from the National Center for Epidemiology of the Carlos III Health Institute showed that of the 482 cases registered in Spain, 128 were in Andalusia, accounting for 26.5% of the national cases, the pediatrician said. Doctors say whooping cough can affect people of any age, although he stresses that the most severe cases usually occur in newborns and young infants. “Transmission is through contact with respiratory secretions (coughing or sneezing, especially during the catarrhal stage) of an infected person,” he added.
In this way, Vera explains that the disease is generally divided into three stages. First, according to experts, there is an initial or catarrhal phase, similar to the common cold, which is the most contagious phase. Between the second and sixth weeks, a paroxysmal stage occurs with a very severe cough, about five to ten coughs, during which the child does not breathe, ending with the typical inspiratory stridor or “rooster crow”.
For Infanta Luisa pediatrician, “This is the most painful phase for parents, since young children develop severe coughing, often accompanied by vomiting, cyanosis and apnea.” Finally, there will be a recovery period in which symptoms gradually lessen. “The total duration of the disease is up to three months,” he noted.
Osuna emphasized: “One of the things about whooping cough is that having the natural disease does not confer permanent immunity.” He said that the “most effective” way to prevent whooping cough is to get vaccinated. “The course of whooping cough is usually more annoying than severe, and the protection afforded by vaccination coverage makes severe cases less likely to occur. Complications that may occur are subconjunctival hemorrhage and superinfection with other bacteria, such as in newborns and unvaccinated pneumonia or otitis media in infants, which may lead to more serious complications such as apnea,” he stressed.
Finally, the pediatrician at the Quirónsalud Infanta Luisa Hospital stressed the importance of starting treatment in the first two weeks of the disease to have a positive impact on its duration, severity and contagiousness. He concluded: “The isolation period is five days for those patients who have been adequately treated with antibiotics and up to 20 days for untreated patients.”
read more