PKids is a national nonprofit organization that was started by parents of kids with infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and C. Their mission is the educate the public about infectious diseases, and they have a campaign right now for Pertussis, or commonly known as Whooping Cough. Pertussis is a potentially deadly bacterial infection that can affect anyone at any age, but it is very harmful for babies. It is important for protection for babies for anyone in close contact with them be vaccinated against it as adults are the number one transmitter of the disease to babies.
Some facts:
- Babies may bleed behind the eyes and in the brain from coughing.
- The most common complication is bacterial pneumonia. About 1 child in 10 with pertussis also gets pneumonia, and about 1 in every 50 will have convulsions.
- Brain damage occurs in 1 out of every 250 children who get pertussis.
- Pertussis causes about 10-20 deaths each year in the United States
Check out their site for more information
here.....
3 comments:
Thanks for the link. My daughter had a reaction to her pertussis shot at 2 months, that almost killed her. So she hasn't had any boosters and my youngest hasn't had the pertussis shots at all. I'm terrified of whooping cough but equally scared of ever again hearing the words "heart failure" in reference to my child.
I'm going to research this further, thanks for the heads up!
Here are my two posts on the Silence the Sound of Pertussis campaign:
Why Vaccinate? and PKids' Campaign: Silence the Sound of Pertussis. I'm keeping a list of bloggers contributing to the campaign there; I've added your blog to the list.
Did you know that a person with pertussis is contagious long before the cough develops?
From Pertussis.com.
Young infants are at highest risk for pertussis-related complications, including seizures, encephalopathy (swelling of the brain), otitis media (severe ear infection), anorexia (severe restriction of food intake) and dehydration.
Pneumonia is the most common complication and cause of infant pertussis-related deaths.
Whooping cough can be life-threatening for infants who are not fully vaccinated. In fact, over the last decade, 80 percent of whooping cough deaths occurred in infants under 6 months of age.
In adolescents and adults, whooping cough can cause severe coughing that can make it hard to breathe, eat, or sleep, and can result in cracked ribs, pneumonia, or hospitalization.
Here's an adult's description of her recent bout with pertussis
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