I’m writing this blog to inform parents out there that there is a dangerous outbreak of Pertussis going around in our area right now. Last year around there time, there were five cases… this year, there are over a hundred.
Pertussis in children under a year old can be fatal. Doctors are being told by the Health Department that if any patient comes in with a cough, they should be treated for Pertussis. They’ll also test for it, but the sooner you’re tested, the better.
I’m posting this because even if your child (baby, toddler, YOU) has gotten the vaccine, there is a chance that they can still catch a tamer version. The Health Department is also looking into the fact that the virus may have mutated, rendering the current vaccine less than effective.
Pertussis is a very contagious, upper respiratory bacterial disease that usually causes uncontrollable, violent coughing. The coughing makes it hard for people effected to catch their breath. When babies are effected it can be fatal because their passageways are already so small that the inflammation makes it almost impossible for them to breath normally.
Symptoms of Pertussis usually start out like a cold. After about a week and a half, your child might have a slight fever on and off (102° F or lower), diarrhea and a runny nose. When your child coughs, it may be hard for them to catch their breath, they may vomit from coughing so hard and in some cases, they could even lose consciousness.
If you’re child has NOT been vaccinated or if they are showing signs, you should call your doctor as soon as possible.
Bella has had a runny nose for quite a few days now, but last night, she woke up coughing. She began coughing so bad that she wasn’t breathing. Needless to say, it was very scary. With someone so young, the more they cough, the more they want to cry which only makes it harder to breath, which of course causes more anxiety. We instantly hooked her up to her nebulizer machine, but it didn’t seem to help. After we got her to calm down, she fell back to sleep but every few hours would have a coughing spell in her sleep. We took her in this morning and she was put on antibiotics. Even if it turns out that she doesn’t have Pertussis, it’s clear that she has some kind of lung infection.
Untreated in older children, Pertussis can lead to pneumonia, nose bleeds, ear infections, a permanent seizure disorder or even death!
We were told, unofficially, that a few of the families that live near us are illegal immigrants from Mexico. They don't have health insurance, so they are most likely not vaccinated, and when they are sick, they don't seek treatment from doctors. The first small outbreak that was control near us was spread by families like these who sent their children to school anyway, or let them go play with other kids. While the other kids, who were vaccinated, were easily treated with medication, if they'd exposed a baby or newborn to this, it could have been fatal.
We received a letter from Bella’s school a few months back that told us that there were are few children that belonged to a girl that lives near us who were never vaccinated against Pertussis. Her kids caught it and it spread around school. Most of the kids who were infected had the vaccine, but still showed some signs, just not as severe. So, please, get your kids vaccinated and encourage your friends to do so too. I know that there is a lot of controversy when it comes to vaccines. Some parents say that it’s a violation of their parental rights to be told that they should vaccinate… but what about our rights of parents to NOT have our kids exposed to diseases that could be avoided or at the least, not be as bad.
This is NOT a pro-vaccination blog. This is a plea to do what you can to protect your kids from diseases like this. 1 in every 200 babies who get Pertussis before six months old will die from it. So it's not just protecting your kids, it's protecting other kids as well.
If you have kids under the age of one in your home and they’ve been exposed to someone who has Pertussis, call your doctor.
If you’d like more information on Pertussis and what you can do to stop the spread of it, these websites are very informative.
