preview

Bordatella Pertussis Or Whooping Cough

Decent Essays

Bordatella Pertussis or Whooping Cough Bordatella pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a serious and highly contagious respiratory tract infection that is transmitted from person to person. During the pre-vaccine era (1922-1940), that in every 100,000 persons, 150 cases of bordatella pertussis are reported and has to continue to increased in 1980s (Faulkner, Skoff, Martin, Tondella, & Liang, 2015). One study found that pertussis is one of the vaccine-preventable disease in the United States that continues to have high incidence among adolescents and adults and increase mortality in children less than 12 months of age (Chiappini, Stival, Galli, & Martino, 2013). Whooping cough is a public-health problem due to its resurgence in recent …show more content…

It is a small, fastidious gram-negative bacteria that easily invades respiratory tract producing a number of antigens and toxins such as pertussis toxin (PT), tracheal cytotoxin, filamentous hemagglutin and pertactin that binds and destroys the pharyngeal epithelial cells (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Bordatella Pertussis, p 206). As a result, triggers the immune system response. B. Pertussis portal of entry is through the mouth, nose and throat and it is primarily transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets with an infected individual or aerosol droplets and rarely fomites (Brunner & Suddarth 2010, p. 2149). Bordatella pertussis is a human disease and adolescents and adults are the main reservoirs (CDC, p. 206). The disease has high infectivity, high pathogenicity and low virulence.
The clinical manifestations of the disease are usually caused by immune system reaction to the bacteria’s antigen and toxins. The infected individual is usually contagious early in the disease and not during protracted period of cough (Brunner & Suddarth 2010, p.2149). Incubation period: 5-10 days after being exposed and highly communicable during the first 2 weeks after cough onset (CDC, Pertussis, 2015). To further understand signs and symptoms of the progression of whooping cough it was divided intro three different stages:
Stage 1: Catarrhal stage (lasts 1-2 weeks) symptoms include cold-like symptoms,

Get Access