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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Treatment For Whooping Cough

My husband and I are 83 and 84-1/2 respectively. My husband was born and grew up in a small town in northern New York state (Canadian border). I was born and lived in Oak Park, Illinois, until age 8-1/2 when my family moved to Scotland. We don t know whether or not we were inoculated for whooping cough. Should we be getting the shots for the disease now? We are both in fairly good health and have no chronic respiratory problems. Thank you, Martha Crouch
Mon, 22 Sep 2014
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Infectious Diseases Specialist 's  Response
Hello,
Welcome to HCM,

Whooping cough is a bacterial infection that's highly contagious, and it's also vaccine preventable. It starts like a cold, with congestion and upper respiratory symptoms, and then progresses to a cough.

It spreads through close contact with oral secretions and respiratory droplets. So it's easily spread through the cough, especially when people are in close contact like living in the same house with a person who has whooping cough.

It can be treated with antibiotics usually erythromycin for 2 weeks. it's important to take the doses on time to develop and maintain the appropriate antibiotic levels in the blood to clear the infection.
Thank you.
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Treatment For Whooping Cough

Hello, Welcome to HCM, Whooping cough is a bacterial infection that s highly contagious, and it s also vaccine preventable. It starts like a cold, with congestion and upper respiratory symptoms, and then progresses to a cough. It spreads through close contact with oral secretions and respiratory droplets. So it s easily spread through the cough, especially when people are in close contact like living in the same house with a person who has whooping cough. It can be treated with antibiotics usually erythromycin for 2 weeks. it s important to take the doses on time to develop and maintain the appropriate antibiotic levels in the blood to clear the infection. Thank you.