Managing whooping cough in adults

Whooping cough in adults may create symptoms like in children. At the first stage, the disease develops cold-like signs such as runny nose, low-grade fever, sore throat, watery eyes, and mild cough. Although it severity may be milder than in infants or kids, the interval of the second stage of the disease last just as long as in kids. Not all adults with pertussis creates whooping noise, according to medicine.com, it’s only 20-40 percent of adults with pertussis that show the whoop sound.

Bordetella pertussis bacteria as the main reason of getting whooping cough can infect adults who didn’t get the vaccine in the past. Those who get the vaccine in their childhood may also infected by the disease since the immunity from pertussis vaccine decrease over the time. This is why adults that have infants or babies around them, they are strongly suggested to get the vaccine shoots. Infected adults are very contagious and have great risk to spread the disease to children around them.

Whooping cough in adults: the treatment

Antibiotics considered as the most effective medical treatment to fight Bordetella pertussis infection, those antibiotics also help to minimize the risk germ transmission to other susceptible person especially infants or children. Unfortunately, most of sufferers are diagnosed after they enter to the second stage or paroxysmal stage, whereas the most contagious phase is the first stage.

The most common antibiotics that used to treat whooping cough in adults are 500 mg clarithromycin given twice a day for 7 days of the treatment, 250 mg erythromycin given four times a day for 7 days of the treatment, and 500 mg azithromycin once in the first day, and 250 mg once a day for 2-5 days of the treatment. Pease note that those antibiotics dose is should be given through doctor’s prescription and all the medicines should be taken entirely.

Other treatments

As stated above, whooping cough in adults is less serious compared to in infants. Along the medical treatment, the doctor may advise the patient to manage the disease at home and recommends the patient to follow some simple advices such as drink a lot of fluid to avoid dehydration, get plenty of rest, eat healthy and balance diet, clear away any excess mucus during coughing, avoid to have contact with other people especially with infants to avoid bacteria transmission. Even though the most contagious phase has been passed, the risk of being infectious still is possible.