Whooping cough symptoms and stages

The whooping cough symptoms will depend on its stages. In early stage that also known as catarrhal stage, those who get the disease will experience signs and symptoms similar to common cold or upper respiratory infection such as low-grade fever, mild and occasional cough, runny nose and sneeze. Commonly these cold-like symptoms will last for one to two weeks.

When someone enter this catarrhal stage, they already infected by Bordetella pertussis, the bacteria that cause whooping cough or pertussis. The disease is highly contagious and spread from the infected person to other susceptible person through saliva droplets when infected people sneezing or coughing, this is why those with the disease need to contains or isolates to prevent the germ spreading.

After the first stage, patient will enter to the second stage called the paroxysmal stage. During this stage the cough gradually become more frequent and severe. At this stage usually health practitioner start to suspect pertussis as the cause of the disease. Below are other symptoms of whooping cough at the second stage.

Common whooping cough symptoms

After one to two weeks of the disease, more severe and frequent cough start to develop. The violent cough is a respond of excessive thick mucus production from the airways in the lungs. This violent and frequent cough will remain constant for two or three weeks. The specific sign of this type of cough is a long respiratory effort to breaths that accompanied with high-pitched whoop sound. This is the reason why this health problem is named as whooping cough.

In severe but rare cases, those who get the disease may experience cyanotic, a condition where mucous membrane and skin especially on lips and face turn to bluish. This condition is caused by lack of oxygen when the patient having breath difficulty during the violent cough. The violent cough or paroxysmal attacks become worse on night when the air become cooler.

Other whooping cough symptoms may appear as side effects of the main signs. Including to this symptoms are extreme fatigue, sleep difficulty, weight loss, and vomiting. Babies or children with the disease may show irritability and distressed.

Most people who get whooping cough will recover with no problems especially when they receive proper medications. The disease complication may occur in several cases. When it happen they may causes abdominal hernias, broken blood vessels in the white of eyes or skin. According to mayoclinic.com, complications in infants (especially those under 6 month of ages) could result more severe condition such as brain damage, stopped breathing, pneumonia, ear infections, and seizures.

In the third stage or convalescent stage, the violent cough starts to disappear gradually. The cough becomes less paroxysmal over two to three weeks.