Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about

whooping cough. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at

zero tofinals.com slash whooping cough or in the respiratory section of the zero definals pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Whooping cough is an upper respiratory tract infection

that's caused by border teller pertussis,

which is a gram-negative bacteria.

It's called whooping cough because the coughing fits are so severe

the child is unable to take any breaths between

coughs and after the coughing fit has settled they subsequently make a large whooping noise

as they forcefully suck air back into their lungs. Children and pregnant women are vaccinated

against pertussis and the vaccine does become less effective a few years after each dose.

So how does it present?

Potasus typically starts with mild carisal symptoms,

a low-grade fever and possibly a mild dry cough.

Then after a week or more, some more severe coughing fits start.

These involve sudden and recurrent attacks of coughing with cough-free periods in between.

And this is described as a paroxysmal cough. Coughing fits are severe and they keep building

until the patient is completely out of breath.

Patients typically produce a large, loud, inspiratory whoop when the coughing ends so that they can

catch their breath. Children can cough so hard that they faint, they vomit or they even develop a

pneumothorax.

...