Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/06/19/4429_ntnews.html
Family battles the rattle in whooping cough outbreak
19Jun08
TERRITORIANS were yesterday urged to ensure they were vaccinated after an outbreak of the potentially fatal whooping cough.
Twelve children have been infected, 11 of them needing hospital treatment.
Director of Disease Control Vicki Krause said whooping cough -- technically known as pertussis -- was a highly infectious disease, which caused attacks of coughing and could lead to pneumonia and sometimes death in young babies.
About one in 200 babies under six months of age who develop whooping cough die from pneumonia or brain damage.
Seraya van Helsing, 30, of Karama, knows exactly how important it is to get vaccinated. Her whole family -- she, her husband and their four children, including a two-month-old baby -- has been battling the rattling cough.
The van Helsing household caught it a week before little Deacon was born, and then he caught it too -- resulting in two stays at the hospital.
"Doctors wanted to keep him under observation because he was turning blue and not breathing for a couple of seconds,'' she said.
"My husband lost his voice from all the coughing, and I kept the kids out of school for a little while, even though they'd been treated so they weren't infectious.''
They had no idea how they got so-called "100-day cough'' and Ms van Helsing expects the family has another month or so before they recover properly.
Whooping cough normally begins like a cold, with an irritating cough, and then develops into a severe, persistent cough.
The disease can be prevented or reduced in severity by vaccination. Dr Krause recommended that sufferers and their at-risk contacts take antibiotics to treat the disease and reduce transmission.
For further information on whooping cough and immunisation, contact a GP, health clinic or the Centre for Disease Control on 89228044.
Family battles the rattle in whooping cough outbreak
19Jun08
TERRITORIANS were yesterday urged to ensure they were vaccinated after an outbreak of the potentially fatal whooping cough.
Twelve children have been infected, 11 of them needing hospital treatment.
Director of Disease Control Vicki Krause said whooping cough -- technically known as pertussis -- was a highly infectious disease, which caused attacks of coughing and could lead to pneumonia and sometimes death in young babies.
About one in 200 babies under six months of age who develop whooping cough die from pneumonia or brain damage.
Seraya van Helsing, 30, of Karama, knows exactly how important it is to get vaccinated. Her whole family -- she, her husband and their four children, including a two-month-old baby -- has been battling the rattling cough.
The van Helsing household caught it a week before little Deacon was born, and then he caught it too -- resulting in two stays at the hospital.
"Doctors wanted to keep him under observation because he was turning blue and not breathing for a couple of seconds,'' she said.
"My husband lost his voice from all the coughing, and I kept the kids out of school for a little while, even though they'd been treated so they weren't infectious.''
They had no idea how they got so-called "100-day cough'' and Ms van Helsing expects the family has another month or so before they recover properly.
Whooping cough normally begins like a cold, with an irritating cough, and then develops into a severe, persistent cough.
The disease can be prevented or reduced in severity by vaccination. Dr Krause recommended that sufferers and their at-risk contacts take antibiotics to treat the disease and reduce transmission.
For further information on whooping cough and immunisation, contact a GP, health clinic or the Centre for Disease Control on 89228044.