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Summary
Whooping cough is an infectious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable coughing. The name comes from the noise you make when you take a breath after you cough. You may have choking spells or may cough so hard that you vomit.
Anyone can get whooping cough, but it is more common in infants and children. It's especially dangerous for infants. The coughing spells can be so bad that it is hard for infants to eat, drink, or breathe.
To make a diagnosis, your doctor may do a physical exam, blood tests, chest x-rays, or nose or throat cultures.
Before there was a vaccine, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood deaths in the U.S. Now most cases are prevented by vaccines. If you have whooping cough, treatment with antibiotics may help if given early.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Symptoms
- Pertussis Signs & Symptoms (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Diagnosis and Tests
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Nasal Swab
(National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
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Whooping Cough Diagnosis
(National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
Prevention and Risk Factors
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Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis Vaccines: MedlinePlus Health Topic
(National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
Treatments and Therapies
- Pertussis Diagnosis & Treatment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Related Issues
- Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Complications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Images
- Photos of Pertussis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Videos and Tutorials
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One Family's Struggles with Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
(Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases)
Statistics and Research
- Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Outbreaks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Clinical Trials
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ClinicalTrials.gov: Whooping Cough
(National Institutes of Health)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Interference With Pertussis Vaccination in Infants After Maternal Pertussis Vaccination.
- Article: Safety and immunogenicity of the live attenuated intranasal pertussis vaccine BPZE1:...
- Article: Measuring the cellular memory B cell response after vaccination in patients...
- Whooping Cough -- see more articles
Children
- Help Protect Babies from Whooping Cough (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
- Whooping Cough (Pertussis) - Fact Sheet for Parents (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Pertussis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Whooping Cough also Known as Pertussis (American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF