Doctor Komarovsky about whooping cough

The child coughs and practically nothing helps him. The pediatrician states that it is whooping cough. From a word that is somewhat scary, parents are horrified. All that is not entirely clear, scary. With the question of what to do now, they go to different specialists. Thousands of times this was heard by well-known doctor Evgeny Komarovsky, who tells in detail about this disease in his books and articles on children's health.

According to the existing definitions that are accepted in pediatrics, Whooping cough is a respiratory bacterial disease, it is especially dangerous for children under two years of age. It is accompanied by spasmodic cough, which is almost not amenable to therapy. The bacterium that causes the disease was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century and in honor of its discoverers it was called the Borde-Zhang wand.

Thirty years after that, scientists were able to identify and study another microorganism - a wand, similar to whooping cough. Tumble bacterium causes mild pertussis - paracoclusum, but does not form immunity from the disease.

A short commentary on the doctor about paracoclus in the video below.

Whooping cough is contagious, there is no innate immunity to it. But when the baby is ill, immunity is maintained for life. From whooping cough do vaccinations (DTP), but the disease also happens in vaccinated children, however, the disease in them is easier. After the onset of the disease, the child is dangerous to others for 30 days.

Yevgeny Komarovsky says that you should not be afraid of this diagnosis. This is one of the most common infections in childhood. Symptoms can fit in one word - cough. Strong, frequent, which occurs seizures. Medicines do not bring relief.

The peculiarity of the infection is that it is manageable. With three months, babies begin to vaccinate. The pertussis component of DPT vaccine, however, does not receive all infants. Weakened, recently recovered, premature babies receive the ADS vaccine, which has no anti-pertussis component. Usually they get sick.

Although, in fairness it should be noted that Children who received a normal full vaccine, too, get sick. However, the course of illness is usually mild to such an extent that parents sometimes do not even know about the disease of their offspring.

The pertussis stick is transmitted only by respiration from person to person. The bacterium practically cannot survive in the environment. Both a child and an adult can very easily become infected, the probability of illness approaches 99% if contact with an infected person has occurred. The contact, however, should be quite close, says Yevgeny Komarovsky, because when coughing, the bacterium is not able to spread further than two or three meters. And because most often the infection is widely distributed in children's groups - in kindergartens, less often - in schools.

Symptoms do not begin to appear immediately after infection, incubation lasts about a week, in some cases - up to three weeks.

This is a completely normal defense mechanism. That is why cough, like any skill useful for a living person, regulates the brain, more precisely, its special section is the cough center.

Respiratory organs have microscopic villi, which are called cilia for their structural features. It is only in these cilia that the pertussis pathogen can multiply. At the same time, it causes a real panic in the cough center of the brain, where irritated cilia from the epithelium of the bronchi and trachea constantly transmit a distress signal in real time.

The cough center gives intense commands to exorcise the hindrance, a strong cough begins, which persists even after all the bacillus sticks die. Yevgeny Komarovsky refers to some scientific research, which suggests that the Bordet-Zhangoo wand is able to secrete a special toxin, which additionally stimulates the cough center of the brain.

Dr. Komarovsky emphasizes that the disease develops gradually.

He often continues to be taken to kindergarten or school, and in parallel, symptomatic treatment of cough is carried out, which, of course, does not help. In this catarrhal period, the child is most contagious.

From the university bench, all doctors can distinguish such a cough. It occurs as if by jolts, not allowing the child to take a full-fledged breath between a series of attacks. When the child still gets the opportunity to inhale with a full breast, this suffering breath is accompanied by a kind of whistling sound.

The lack of oxygen makes the face of the coughing child red or even bluish immediately at the time of the attack, and vomiting is possible after it. The more often such attacks, the harder the course of the disease. Worst of all, the child feels in the first two weeks, when the intensity of cough attacks increases, then it becomes easier for the baby, however, and the seizures decrease rather slowly. Much more slowly than doctors and parents of a sick baby would have wanted.

How to recognize whooping coughSee the next video.

The most dangerous is the age of up to a year. Especially difficult to carry whooping cough children from 0 to 6 months. Such intense coughing attacks can cause crumbs to stop breathing after an attack, which is very dangerous for life. These pauses in breathing can last for about a minute, as a result of which the brain suffers from hypoxia, its most important functions can be disturbed. Serious consequences come from the nervous system.

According to Yevgeny Komarovsky, whooping cough has a very real risk pneumonia. Inflammation of the lining of the lung in this situation does not develop because of the pertussis stick, its trivial "culprits" are becoming staphylococcus and streptococci.

Komarovsky considers antibiotic therapy to be the most effective way to recover. Over the years of evolution, the pertussis stick has not learned to develop its own immunity to antibiotics, therefore, it is not so difficult to cope with it. However, penicillins, optimal for children, are practically powerless against the pathogen. According to current medical practice, Erythromycin is considered the best antimicrobial drug against pertussis. His doctors prescribe an average of five days. During this time, the medicine completely destroys the causative agent.

If whooping cough became a fact already in the second stage (and this happens most often), antibiotics will also be prescribed, however, these drugs can no longer reduce the seizures or their intensity, because the matter is no longer in bacteria but in the brain. However, antimicrobial therapy significantly reduces the ability to infect others, which is also very important.

With the appointment of antibiotics, too, has its own nuances. Classical whooping cough, such as described above, does not happen as often. This is a merit of vaccination. More often, whooping cough gets a “blurred”, paranormal symptomatic background, which is why doctors are in no hurry to prescribe antibiotics. In general, it is very difficult even for an experienced specialist to recognize atypical whooping cough. The good news is that such a “light” type of the disease takes place for a long time, but relatively easily.

There is also little hope for laboratory research. A child with suspected pertussis is asked to cough up on a special glass with nutritive moisture, in which the lab technicians then try to cultivate the pathogen. There is no ciliary epithelium on the glass, so it’s not always possible to grow a wand. Then moms and dads are told that the pertussis stick test is negative. This does not mean that there is no disease.

All about whooping cough - in the transfer of Dr. Komarovsky.

• If a child has whooping cough, this Immediately need to inform everyone who communicated with the child - call the kindergarten, school, tell parents of friends. Visits at the time of treatment cancel, isolate the child.
• Diligently follow the schedule of antibiotics, prescribed by a doctor, follow the recommended dosage. In no case do not stop taking the drug early.
• With a cough for the time of illness, you just need to accept and internally accept the fact that no miracle cures will help reduce it. You should not torture the child with inhalations and alternative medicine, only time will help.
• There are factors that affect the intensity of cough in case of illness: stress, heavy exercise, sneezing and swallowing can increase the frequency of attacks. Therefore, it is necessary to abandon active outdoor games, do a spring-cleaning, rid the house of dust and make sure that it does not appear all the time while you will treat the child. Food should be light and does not require particularly thorough chewing - mashed potatoes, mousse, jelly. Under the ban - gum, toffee, very hard cookies and crackers. Feed the baby often need a little.
• Mandatory condition for recovery - fresh air. The room should be ventilated, to maintain the level of humidity (within 50-70%). If there is no special deviceair humidifier, you can hang out wet towels, sheets and make sure that they do not dry out. In the corners arrange basins with water. The child must walk a lot, but stay away from playgrounds and other places where he can become a source of infection for other children and adults. The sea air is very useful at this moment for the child. If there is no opportunity for a month to go with him to the sea, but it is summer on the street, it is advisable to send the child away from the city - to the village, to the grandmother.
• You can not refuse hospitalization, if it offers a doctor. He will make such an offer only in certain cases - if the child is not one year old, if the child is older after coughing attacks, breathing stops.
• Expectorant drugs (Codelac, Sinekod) may increase cough. Therefore, no pharmaceutical preparations should be given to the child without the permission of the doctor. Especially Komarovsky warns parents against the treatment of folk remedies.
• At the final stage diseases, when the cause is already deep in the brain, new bright impressions will benefit the child, they will switch the brain from coughing to new experiences, and the seizures will begin to decrease.