WHOOPING COUGH - Symptoms And Treatment

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 103, 13 June 1941, Page 13

WHOOPING COUGH - Symptoms And Treatment

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

H. B.

TURBOTT

Director of

the Division of School Hygiene, Health Department.)

a common and most unpleasant "trickster," a disease that creeps in disguised as a cold -whooping cough. This is among the most serious and most distressing complaints to which humanity is heir, and tiny children readily fall victims to it. Mothers do not have to be told how heart-rending it is to stand by and see the helpless little mites pitifully struggling for breath when the paroxysm is on. Twenty-three deaths were due to whooping cough last year. Whooping cough is, in fact, more serious than many people think, not so much, perhaps, in itself, as in the complications that can, and do, ensue. The most dreaded is pneumonia. "Fifth Column" Treachery People of all ages are fair game for the microscopic germ that causes whooping cough, but babies are the most vulnerable, An attack is not at first apparent. Therein lies one of the most insidious features of the disease. It has a kind of "fifth column" treachery about it. It is there, but you don’t know it; and when you do know it, the damage has started. As a rule whooping es starts as a cold in the head, which lasts from three to ten days. A barking cough is the first sign of something more serious than a cold. The cough begins to come in paroxysms, much more severe at night, that may cause vomiting, or, in severe cases, even convulsions. In babies the characteristic whoop does not always develop, but other symptoms are present. For instance, early in the attack there is fever, and the child becomes pale and listless. Before I proceed to the treatment, let me emphasise this: There is a definite risk to life when the child is under one year. After that the danger lies more in the complications that may follow — pneumonia (which I have already mentioned), bronchitis, and tuberculosis. Be On Your Guard During the first two weeks, when the symptoms are like those of an ordinary I WANT this week to discuss

cold, it is difficult to say whether whooping cough is present. But this is the time when it is most easily caught by other children. My advice, and I cannot say it too strongly, is that parents keep their child away from others when it has a cold. In other words, treat a cold in the head as whooping cough until it is proved otherwise. It is not much to ask, and it will help to reduce the spread of infection and suffering. Once the disease is diagnosed, certain important steps are necessary if the child’s distress is to be eased, the parents’ anxiety relieved, and the cough cleared up: First call a doctor. He will plan a course of treatment, and his help and advice are always reassuring. The patient must be isolated. Don’t be afraid of free ventilation. He must have plenty of fresh air, and proper diet, based on milk and eggs, with extra to make up food lost during vomiting. Cod liver oil in some form, or concentrated forms of vitamins A and D should’ be given. Six Points To Remember Parents should remember these points: (1). Whooping cough can be fatal. (2). If the child has a cold, keep it away from others. (3). The patient should be isolated until the whoop has ceased for two weeks. (4). Fresh air and proper diet are two most important aids to recovery. Although isolated, the patient may be allowed up and out in the sunshine as soon as the fever has stopped. (5). Contact with other people, even the healthiest of subjects, is most dangerous for the little sufferer, as many healthy persons carry pmeumonic germs in their throats. (6). Build up the patient’s resistance with proper food, fresh air, sunshine, sleep and rest. (Next Week: "A Talk on Liver," by Dr. Muriel Bell)