Whooping cough: a case report and clinical review

Whooping cough is an infectious disease that affects currently to infants less than six months old and teenagers or young adults, due to a limited vaccine efficacy. The clinical course has several phases, being the period of infection the initial catarrhal stage and the first two weeks of the paroxysmal phase. Young infants can have an atypical presentation with apnoea pauses without cough, becoming a potentially serious disease that may require admission. The diagnosis is clinical due to the technical difficulties in the laboratory confirmation. The responsible organism is Bordetella pertussis, although similar clinical symptoms can be produced by other micro-organisms, both viruses and bacteria. The recommended antibiotic is azithromycin for both the case and contacts. Complementary treatments have not proven useful.