In addition to the cough, I have an advanced case of Internet Self-Diagnostic Delusionary Syndrome. In other words, after looking up the symptoms for Pertussis, I’m sure I have it. But can I? I’ve read articles stating that vaccinated adults can get Pertussis, but those articles always reference someone who has received only childhood vaccinations. In my case, I’ve been boosted three times.
I receive DPT vaccinations on the regular childhood schedule. Received boosters as follows:
7 yrs
14 yrs
26 yrs
I’m now 36, so that last one was 10 years ago.
My fevered imaginings can only be quelled by the facts. What are the chances someone with a healthy immune system with my vaccination schedule can contract Pertussis?
Don’t know where you are but my friend in eastern Washington state had it this winter and she’s in public health so I’m quite sure she keeps up her boosters.
It’s certainly possible that your is one of the bodies that don’t form a good immunity to that virus. I don’t have the numbers in my head, but they’re not zero. Some people just don’t no matter how many times they get it. If you’re truly curious, you can ask you doctor to draw a titer - a lab test that tells them if you have antibodies for pertussis.
What’s far, far more likely, however, is that you “just” have a really bad cough. In adults, pertussis doesn’t usually have much in the way of distinguishing signs. It’s just a really bad cough that lasts for-freaking ever. So I’m not sure what, as an adult, could convince you that you have pertussis and not, say, bronchitis.
(But thanks, now you’ve got me all paranoid that I have pertussis, too. *cough…coughcoughcoughcoughcough…ugh…")
(In the US at least) generally adults don’t get DPT vaccines. After the initial series adults were normally given DT vaccines lacking any Pertussis component, but it was noted that adults were starting to get Pertussis again, so the Tdap vaccine for adolescence and adults was developed in 2005. The recommendation was that all adults get Tdap instead of DT on the next cycle. 2005 is less than 10 years ago so Tdap wasn’t available at the time.
The one time i had a cough that lasted longer than two weeks I visited my doctor to get checked out. Turned out to be nothing that cleared up in a few more days, but it’s a good practice to follow.
Try one of those urgent care clinics or similar places, they can usually see you the same day, and the price is fairly reasonable (the place I went to only charged half price because I paid at the time of service).
Intriguing. No, I’m not sure. I went in asking for “tentanus booster” and they gave me whatever they gave me. I think I know where that information is though, I’ll check it tomorrow.
WhyNot - its the mild cold with no significant cough, following by all symptoms improving – except the cough, which gets worse as other symptoms get better. Coughing bouts are not constant but violent when they occur. Unlike when I’ve had bronchitis or walking penumonia, it’s not painful to take a deep breath. My breathing feels normal to me, not stuffed up or constricted. Just the weirdly superviolent cough.
BUT, I’m pretty sure I don’t really have pertussis, I’ve had way worse coughs in my day than this one. I was just curious whether it was at all likely or even possible.
Internet Self-Diagnostic Delusionary Syndrome is extremely contagious. I hear medical and nursing students often experience the closely related syndrome, Textbook-Induced Disease Paranoia.
Don’t know if it has jumped the pond (if you are stateside) but over here in the UK the malady of choice for this winter has been a cold and temperature virus accompanied by a remarkably long-lasting and hacking chesty cough. My little boy has had it three weeks, I’ve had it two and pretty miserable it is.
Adults (and older children) rarely whoop. That’s why it’s pretty much impossible to tell on your own if you’ve got pertussis or “just” a bad cough. Your doctor can tell by looking down your throat and listening to your cough (sometimes) or with a nose or throat swab test (more certain).
If you think you may have pertussis, it’s a good idea to get it checked out, especially if you’re around babies. They don’t have immunity to it yet, and pertussis in small babies can be life threatening. They sometimes don’t “whoop” either, and the first “maybe this isn’t just a mild cold” symptom we see in them is apnea - they just stop breathing.
This is why we really want adults to get their booster vaccine, so they don’t get pertussis and pass it on to babies. Babies not breathing is bad.
Well, the doc agrees with me that I have no throat infection & my lungs are clear. what I do have is a lot of irritation from coughing. He doesn’t think it looks much like Pertussis but doesn’t rule it out completely. He made disgruntled noises when I said I was last boosted 10 years ago.
Hello again,
I caught pertussis, or .whooping cough’ a few years ago, I can only tell you what my symptoms were. It started with just vague feeling of fatigue and cold symptoms, then a mild cough. Then the cough got a little more noticeable,…one night I woke up coughing, my throat 'locked’and I was not able to get any oxygen for maybe fifteen seconds or so. Over the following days I had more episodes of this that grew worse and more frequent and have a low grade fever.
My coughing fits grew so bad I had to have breathing treatments, I would cough so violently and my throat would lock up leaving me unable to breathe in and get oxygen until I felt like passing out, then it would release and I would take in a long breath that made a ‘whoop’ sound,
I was sick from sometime in April and wasn’t really recovered well enough to go outside and do anything until late June
Did he offer anything to help with the symptoms? I know you said it’s only a few days but if it’s that bothersome, inhalers / nebulizers might help, or an oral cough suppressant of some sort (i.e. codeine).
Pertussis is extremely difficult to diagnose and there is no vaccine that gives lasting protection.
Diagnosis can be made by
bacterial culture but it is not sensitive and must be done early
PCR but it must be done early and there have been problems with false positives
signs and symptoms but that isn’t sensitive or specific and requires a doc old enough to have seen a lot of cases
signs, symptoms and a history of exposure to a confirmed case but that is neither sensitive nor specific
Until a few years ago when Tdap (tetanus toxoid, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis vaccine) was introduced, no one older than age 6 years received any vaccination against pertussis in the United States.
The acellular pertussis vaccines provide protection that wanes fairly rapidly so it would not be at all surprising for any adult to have pertussis. Reported cases have been unusually common lately.
Although pertussis used to kill children in the United States in the thousands, since universal childhood vaccination, the number of known fatal cases have been in the two digits and almost all are very young infants. The vaccination strategy is aimed largely at protecting them, so it is recommended that adults and children who will have contact with a very young infant be vaccinated with Tdap. It is also a good idea for pregnant women to receive Tdap in mid-pregnancy so that they can pass on some anti-pertussis antibodies to their newborn before birth and so that they, themselves, don’t get pertussis after delivery and pass it on to their baby.
If you have cold symptoms followed by a paroxysmal cough that lasts for weeks, you might have pertussis. If you have paroxysms of coughing that make you pee your pants, you might have pertussis. If you have paroxysms of coughing that have broken a rib, you might have pertussis. If you have paroxysms of coughing that disturb your spouse so much you leave your bedroom in the middle of the night, you might have pertussis.
And the reason to know is less for your sake as treatment would not do too much to relieve your symptoms, but to decrease the spread to others, including some who might expose higher risk individuals.
Yes. I got some kind of prescription cough pill for day (Benzo-something), codeine for night. He wrote me a prescription for a steroid inhaler, to be filled if cough not improved by today. Its a good bit better.
In my case, my reason for wanting to know was just idle curiosity. I obviously had some misconceptions about the vaccine though, so, ignorance fought!
I hear medical and nursing students often experience the closely related syndrome, Textbook-Induced Disease Paranoia.