What are the symtoms of whooping cough?

Whooping cough usually starts as a sore throat with a mild feeling of tiredness and being unwell, that withing 2-3 days turns into an intermittent dry cough. This persists for 7-10 days and the cough becomes a little productive of sticky, clear phlem and intense bouts of choking coughing start to occur. Fever is usually limited to the first week and is only mild. There may be a runny nose like a cold in the early stages.

Major symptoms (usually 2 wks. onward) Attacks of choking cough that last 1-2 minutes, often with vomiting, severe facial congestion, and a feeling or appearance of suffocation. Between these attacks you will appear and feel perfectly well. These choking attacks can happen from 2-50 times a day. "Whooping" is a sound that comes from the voice box after a paroxysm when the sufferer is suddenly able to breath again. Only about 50% of whooping cough sufferers suffer "whoop" but this is where the name comes from. Sometimes the patient stops breathing after a severe bout of coughing, long enough to go blue. Occasionally the patient faints as well. Recovery of this is usually rapid and back to normal in a couple of minutes.

Whooping cough can last from 3 weeks to 3 months or even longer.

Late sypmtoms: Whooping cough resolves by a slow reduction in the number of choking attacks.

The crucial point for clinical diagnosis is attacks of severe choking cough seperated by long intervals of no coughing at all. There is immense variation in severity and duration of the illness. Most cases go undiagnosed because the physician never hears the patient cough and cannot believe it is a severe as he/she says and listening with a stethoscope indicates normal lung in whooping cough!

This is an immunization (vaccination) that protects against pertussis (whooping cough), a severe and potentially deadly childhood bacterial infection that affects the airways. Pertussis is characterized by a severe, persistent cough and whooping or crowing sound on inspiration (taking a breath).
Symptoms:-
runny nose
slight fever (102掳F or lower)
severe, repeated coughs that:
make breathing difficult
result in vomiting
produce a high-pitched "whooping" sound when a person takes a breath
cause a short loss of consciousness
diarrhea
choking spells in infants.
Treatment:-
If started early enough, antibiotics such as erythromycin and amoxicillin can make the symptoms go away more quickly. Unfortunately, most patients are diagnosed too late, when antibiotics aren't very effective.
Please see the webpages for more details on Whooping cough (pertussis).