Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Just to make people aware, we've had 6 + (losing count) cases of whooping cough (confirmed) in the past week at Eumundi/Noosa.

Please see here for guidelines/management:

http://www.rch.org.au/clinicalguide/...=5236#contacts

My boys have classic symps and have been vaccinated, hopefully their symps will be less severe. More sleepless nights with coughing children! :blink:

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Yep there's quite a few cases up here in Gympie as well GB.
Our Gran daughter has croup so No 1 daughter not getting much sleep at the moment:sneaky:

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

This one actually deserves a bump, just to warn parents......

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Hope it stays in the low numbers. I had that when I was about 8 and I still have memories:eek:

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Does anyone have an links to a more informative site than that one (ie: one with a description of what it is like etc). I am completely ignorant of it but guessing it involves coughing (duh!) and am not in Qld but my daughter has had a persistent cough since before Easter which my GP keeps brushing off & I am starting to look around for info on what it might be. I don't think it's whooping cough (I've been told it's croup but it's been going on for MONTHS!) but would still like the info to cross it off the list for sure!

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Croup has a very distinctive 'seal bark' cough and is very common in small kids, whooping cough tends to occurr in spasms. Children are well inbetween coughing spells (ie no fever, vomiting, flu like symptoms etc). Its also a 'dry' cough and can sound quite high pitched in young kids. My kids bloods have come back all clear, its 'just a cough'!

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Get her checked for asthma, our son had a cough that wouldn't go away and he had asthma, worth checking it out.

Mandy

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

In the US we are re-immunising children aged 11-15 (even if they had the usual series as babies/toddlers) because the medical community's learnt that the vaccine wears off in many kids.

Is the same policy the case in Oz?

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

I caught whooping cough as an adult in Japan. Absolutely the most terrifying thing I've ever had. As someone else said, you feel fine most of the time, but then you have an attack. You cough, exhale, and can't breathe in. I honestly thought I was about to be checking out. Could not get air in at all for a frightening few seconds, then it slowly starts to come back through, hence the whoop sound. Kids can start turning blue. I had maybe three or four attacks per day (laughing can trigger it, so best be a miserable git if you have it).

I went to the doctor, but had no symptoms to show and they don't believe you. Unless you have an attack and start turning blue in the doctor's office, they can tend to dismiss you.

They didn't believe me until I passed it on to my six-month old daughter (immunized just too late). She was in hospital on an antibiotic drip for nine days. Can be fatal in babies. You have to turn them on their side and pat them on the back.

In Japan it's called the 100 day cough, and it really was. No cure, you just have to bear it for three months.

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Some of the symptoms on here sound more like asthma!

I can tell you that Oz and NZ had massively high cases of whooping cough for the last 12 months and then the health authorities discovered that the test they were using on the blood was WRONG giving false positive results.

It should all be sorted now.

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec14/ch173/ch173l.html is a great site with audio to hear common whooping coughs.

Andrew

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

You're probably right, but the phrase "it's probably asthma" brings back very bad memories for me.

I would advise parents to be careful, as when I had whooping cough the doctors I saw kept trying to tell me it was asthma, even though I described the symptoms to a tee and I knew damn well it wasn't asthma, as I've had both.

As I said, nobody believed me apart from my wife (she saw the attacks -- sudden attacks of choking and vomiting are not generally symptoms of asthma). They only decided it wasn't asthma when my baby daughter caught it from me.

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

No not yet. That'll take another 30 years to come in! :D

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/515/62

In addition to protecting the teen and adult who get the booster, preventing disease in these groups reduces the chance of someone passing it on to a baby who's not yet fully vaccinated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2524983.stm

also mentions this.

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

I had the first two parts of the whooping cough vaccine, nearly killed me; my mum told me how I went blue. When I got copies of medical records before coming out here I discovered that I did actually stop breathing and had to be resucitated.

Re: Whooping Cough Warning - Sunshine Coast
 

Eeeeeeek. That must have been terrifying, for you and your mum. :ohmy: I never had the whooping cough vaccine, because there was a scare about it when I was a nipper. I had not considered it as a illness that could affect adults so badly. My little one has been immunised against it. There was no drama with that vaccine now, concern has been switched to the MMR.