Are kids more likely to get Whooping Cough than Diphtheria?

Yes, pertussis can be common. I haven’t heard of any Diphtheria going around but that’s why we have vaccines? Polio is pretty much all gone in this country due to vaccines as well.

My father never got the pertussis vaccine as a child and he got Whooping cough REALLY bad for 2 years and had to go on steroids. It was awful. Please make sure your child has all his/her vaccines. It really stinks to be sick.

Now if only we had a vaccine for mono…wow, that would have saved me last semester!

That’s the whole point of vaccines, it helps prevent outbreaks. Do you want there to be an outbreak, so you feel the vaccine is working?? I don’t follow the logic of this question.

I may be against some vaccines, but dTAP is a very important vaccine. I know a lot of people don’t feel the Polio part is important, but try telling that to people who have gotten Polio.

@seekingwolf That’s my point….we get vaccinated against pertussis at the same time we get vaccinated against Diphtheria. When people diagnose their kid with “Whooping Cough” chances are it’s just a cold! You know, if people knew what the symptoms of Diphtheria were (which most don’t, I don’t think) they’d be diagnosing their kids with that! What I’m saying is, Whooping “Cough” is…well, we all know what a cough is….so every bad cough is “Whooping Cough!”

@casheroo The point of the question is they silly things people come up with based on a little “knowledge.” It just goes back to the American way of taking a very small incident (like Nile Fever and Avian Flu) and turning it into an epidemic. Have you ever heard a parent say their kid has whooping cough, or that whooping cough is “going around”? If they called it what it was—pertussis, then they’d know better than to claim that!

I’ve never heard of a parent diagnosing their child with Whooping Cough, on their own. Whooping Cough is another name for Pertussis (as you know) Who do you know is saying their child has Whooping Cough, when they don’t?

@Dutchess12

I don’t think parents could be diagnosing their children with either because the vast majority of kids are vaccinated for these illnesses. As long as they get the shots and the boosters, there’s nothing to worry about. :)

My father literally couldn’t breathe when he had pertussis, the cough he had was beyond horrible…much more than a “bad cough”, it was like he was dying!

Actually, Nile Fever (West Nile Virus) is still pretty big in my area. We are near a lake and many people live on the lake, usually rich retired folks. Several people die each year from contracting West Nile Virus, mostly old folks but also some young kids, and there’s always tons of birds who are lying dead in the summer from it. Nasty stuff.

Well, what can you do? Stay safe/clean, take the vaccines, don’t handle dead animals, and stay away from stagnant waters!

I’ve heard someone say their child has whoopig cough put it was actually croop which sounds very whoopy.

@sakura

Oh god, croop is nasty! bad childhood memories

@sakura maybe they were referring to the sound of the cough. I know a lot of people who’s children have gotten Croup, I think that cough is more seal-like.

@casheroo Oh, a friend of mine had a child who was sick with a bad cough. She said, “I heard that Whooping Cough is going around.” Well…I’ve heard it before, didn’t think much about it, but decided to research a bit—which is when I learned that Whooping Cough is Pertussis, which I know the vast majority of us have been inoculated against. People diagnose themselves all time, with things like, “Walking Pneumonia,” and stuff. “Croup” is a good example…it’s caused by the cold virus. In other words, your kid has a cold, and the word “Croup” is just describing the cough, not the disease.

@Dutchess12 Where are you getting this information? Croup is caused by Parainfluenze virus Not the same as the common cold with a bad cough. You treat Croup with steroids, you don’t treat a common cold with anything.
Also, just because someone is vaccinated, does not mean they have complete protection. Vaccines don’t work forever. Do you know the last time you got your boosters? I personally don’t think I’m protected from anything expect Tetanus. I never had to get vaccinated for college (never stayed in the dorms) so I could get exposed to something and get it, even if I was vaccinated as a child.

Pertussis is far more common than diphtheria. From ‘80—‘89, only 24 cases of respiratory diphtheria were reported. Over the same period, there were 10,749 pertussis cases.

Pertussis is extremely contagious, more so than diphtheria. So even though the vaccines are typically given together, a case of pertussis among the unvaccinated population will spread far more effectively o other unvaccinated individuals. Over time, this means that the numbers of the diphtheria pathogen have been greatly reduced by the vaccination programs, while pertussis is more difficult to control.

@casheroo Parainfluenze virus is a strain of the cold:

“Croup is a childhood illness usually caused by a group of viruses called human parainfluenza viruses, which also cause the common cold.”

http://children.webmd.com/features/8-childhood-illnesses-get-the-facts?page=2

@Dutchess12 Weird. I always knew about the rhinovirus, but wiki says this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold
“Acute viral rhinopharyngitis, or acute coryza, usually known as the common cold, is a contagious, viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, primarily caused by picornaviruses (including rhinoviruses) or coronaviruses. It is the most common infectious disease in humans and there is no known cure.”

I could be wrong, and that virus also causes the common cold. But, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/common-cold/DS00056/DSECTION=causes says over 200 viruses can cause it, so we’re going in circles here.

We need Shilolo or Dr. C.

@casheroo Yes, there are tons and tons of different mutations of the cold virus…but (don’t hold me to this!) I’ve heard that you can only get ONE type of the virus in your life, then you become immune to it. But since there are 200 different virus’ out there, you may be immune to one of them, which leaves 199 waiting to GIT you! But some are much more common, and probably more infectious than others…Which is why older people don’t get as many colds as the younger kids because they’ve already had the most common ones.

I really feel that Croup is manifested from the common cold, but it’s something different. The CDC explains it

Small pox is the only disease that has been completely vaccinated out of existence.

There was a case of TB found at a prison not so far from where I live this week, they have to test all of the inmates for it now.

@casheroo You’re correct about croup. Thanks for the link, it’s very informative.

And yep, Small pox is eradicated now…thanks to the old “cow pox” vaccine that was started so many years ago. TB is still alive and well unfortunately. I knew about 20 women in India who had it. I was taking care of them and had to be careful not to contract it. Nasty stuff.

You know what’s another nasty illness? Leprosy. I’m sooo glad we don’t have THAT here, oh man.

@seekingwolf O, I hear you. Nasty, nasty stuff that the majority of Americans don’t have to worry about~

Most of us are immunized against pertussis and diphtheria, but there is a small, vocal minority of parent-advocates who think that vaccination causes autism—when the link between thimerosal and autism has been pretty much discredited, and only the flu vaccine still uses thimerosal anyway. These are the people likely to be the victims of pertussis and diphtheria outbreaks.

(And I can’t say I have much pity for them, either.)

@cwilbur – We can pity their kids though. Their poor sick, autism free kids.

@cwilbur I know a family whose son was born healthy and had reactions after his 2, 4, and 6 month diphtheria and pertussis shots. He got seizures that became extreme after his 6 month shot to the point of causing harm, now I realize that is not autism, but there are risks associated with these shots. I realize they are extremely small and it is a far greater risk to not get vaccinated, but we should still be aware and cautious if our child reacts to a shot significantly.

@fundevogel: Their poor, sick kids who have the same incidence of autism as the general population, rather.

@miasmom: Parents who stop vaccinating their children because their children have adverse reactions to vaccines are not in the class of idiots who do not vaccinate their children in the first place because they believe that vaccines cause autism.

@cwilbur – You’re right, I just said that because it had a better ring. I am a terrible person.

I should be a yellow journalist, no fact will be sacred, no source authenticated.

@cwilbur I don’t delay/selective vax because of autism.

Uh