My son who is four months (6 wks adjusted age, born at 28 wks) was sick with coughing and poor feeding. The Pediatrician diagnosed him with bronchiolitis. His two sisters may be infected but no definitive diagnosis. He was sick for 8 days before a nasal swab and antibody blood tests were done and confirmed pertussis. He was hospitalized for 3 weeks, so far (still there) He had to be on an ECMO machine (artificial lung).

I am a 45 year old with a history of asthma. I was unable to sleep at night for more that 1-2 hours at a time. I had intense coughing and some nights I could not stop coughing. I cried the next time I went into my primary care physician because I was so worn out and frustrated. He was treating me for my asthma which causes frequent/severe coughing usually triggered by a cold. It lasted for at least 2-3 months. I was referred to a pulmonologist who performed a blood test and then was diagnosed with pertussis. I had a coworker who tested positive for pertussis after I was diagnosed. Four years later I'm still struggling. My asthma cough used to only be a problem after I got over a cold, but now due to the "post-pertussis" syndrome it has triggered more problems with my asthma and reactive airway. I had no idea it would create such a long-term effect.

My daughter, who is 4 months old, was initially seen by her pediatrician for sneezing and a cough. Two weeks later when she did not improve a nasal swab was performed. The infection came from a child that was not vaccinated. Another family member was infected. This is a very scary illness, especially for a child so young.

Four months ago my 7 year old daughter started with a cough. It just seemed to get worse until she was coughing every night to the point of vomiting and seemed to have problems catching her breath. These episodes happened up to ten times a night. We went to the pediatrician, a pediatric allergist, and ear nose and throat doctor, and the emergency room. FINALLY after four months we went to a pulmonary doctor who knew right away what she had. Her nasal swab did not test positive, but the blood test showed that she had had pertussis in the past. It is now six months later and she still coughs, but not nearly as bad as the first two months when we were up every night having up to 10 episodes with her coughing and not breathing.

At the age of 41 I developed a terrible cough. It became so severe that I would vomit with the cough. I was worried and went to a local health clinic, but when they could not diagnose me, I went to the VA hospital. I had blood drawn and a chest x-ray. After coughing for a month I was diagnosed with pertussis. I don't know where I got it because no one I know had it. In the past I had not taken the term "whooping cough" seriously, but I saw how debilitating it was for me. A few people at work had questions, so I provided them with information so that they had a little more understanding.

When I was a college student at the age of 40, I sat in front of a student who had an uncontrollable cough. About a week later I was coughing. Soon my six year old son developed the cough as well. The cough got worse and I started to choke with the cough, and my son vomited with his cough. We went to our family doctor who sent us to a pediatric allergist. After my son had a coughing spell in the doctor's office, the allergist recognized the classic “whoop” as my son struggled to get his breath. The doctor was able to diagnosis us. He took us off all medications stating that there really was no treatment and gave us an over the counter cough syrup. This was over 10 yrs ago. To this day, whenever I get a cold, I always revert to the "whooping" cough which persists until my cold has run its course. It's like my respiratory system has been permanently altered by the pertussis. I am always surprised by the intensity and harshness of the cough. Once you have pertussis, you can understand why a vaccine was developed to prevent it. (Editors note: Medications are used to prevent the spread of the disease, but the cough is not cured by the medications. Pertussis is called the 100 day cough, and is slow to resolve even with treatment.)

When I was 32 years old, my father was hospitalized. When I would visit him, I noticed that my father's room mate and his wife had terrible coughing episodes. I later developed a cough that was so intense that it gave me a headache. My cough persisted and progressed to the point that I vomited or even fainted. I went from being a physically active 32 year old attorney to being mostly homebound and inactive for several months. At first they thought I had bronchitis. I could not even drive due to my coughing fits and fainting... I was afraid I would crash my car! I was diagnosed by a nasal swab test after a week of this bad cough, but it took a long time to recover. When I was first able to leave my house again, I was in constant fear of having a coughing fit and humiliating myself in public by vomiting. At first even the slightest exertion caused a coughing fit. The public seems to know very little of this dreaded disease, and I now try to educate people whenever I can so that they will get vaccinated rather than have to suffer as I did.

At the age of 52, I contracted pertussis from my 16 year old daughter. She was diagnosed with "walking pneumonia" and put on azithromycin. She got better but continued to have a few coughing fits. I started with a low grade fever, headache, and scratchy throat. The scratchy throat became more irritated, with a constant tickle, leading to prolonged coughing. The coughing kept me awake at night. Next came the production of very thick, sticky mucous which could not easily be expelled. When it was brought up I had the sensation of my airway being shut off and struggled to breathe. In addition, I had a very low energy level and struggled to complete the activities of daily living. Over the next four weeks I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and walking pneumonia. Bronchitis was also mentioned. It was also suggested by one medical provider that the difficulty in getting my breath after a coughing bout, accompanied by thick mucous, was an "anxiety attack". This illness has been very difficult in many ways-the length of time having the horrible symptoms, the difficulty in getting the accurate diagnosis (I found your site and suggested it to my primary care provider), the frightening feeling of being unable to breathe, the discomfort of the thick mucous, the general malaise, and the pain of accompanying costocondritis. I am still having varying degrees of hoarseness and mucous production and tire easily. I am simply sick of being sick!

My five week old daughter coughed so hard she would turn blue. She was diagnosed with a virus by her pediatrician. After a night of coughing fits and her continuing to turn blue we went to a children's hospital nearby where we spent the next three weeks. She was diagnosed with pertussis following a nasal swab. All they could do was count how many times a day she had coughing fits and administer oxygen to her. It got so bad and scary that they put the resuscitation bag in her bed at night in case she stopped breathing while coughing. Each time she had a coughing fit her oxygen level would drop and sent off her monitoring equipment. I feel that an uncle we saw a week before who had a bad cough (which had been diagnosed as a sinus infection) is how my daughter got pertussis. He had just come back from traveling out of the country. My daughter was too young to get the vaccine. My lesson learned was that those near a newborn need to get a booster shot of pertussis as we are learning that the immunization wears off and older people can and are infecting helpless newborns. My daughter’s two cousins were around this same uncle but both cousins were a year older and had already been immunized once.

I am 39 year old female and was diagnosed with pertussis three weeks after having a fever and a lasting cold, severe coughing, bruised feeling in my chest, fatigue and seeing "stars". I coughed, experienced incontinence due to coughing, and felt like I was choking as I drew breath which was worse at night. I began to feel that if I just coughed a little harder, I could clear the phlegm from my throat. A close friend, age 39, had gone to the doctor because she caught my cold and they diagnosed her with bronchitis. I then went to my doctor looking to be treated with antibiotics like my friend. I am uninsured so no testing was done. I was treated by my family practitioner based on symptoms, listening to my lungs, and through history. I have no idea how I contracted the disease. I took all my antibiotics on schedule & have felt almost no improvement or relief. I am exhausted, get winded with little activity, and continue to have coughing fits with exposure to cold. I have headaches nearly every day and I worry about how long I may be a danger to my family & friends. My children were immunized with DTaP so I've been told they should be safe.

I am a 42 year old female and was diagnosed with pertussis in early September and still have a residual cough. I started with a fever and a distinctive severe cough that ended with the classic "whoop" sound. My supervisor brought her son to the office right after his doctor's appointment where he was diagnosed with pertussis and she did not think about him being highly contagious. Due to my history of exposure and the experienced medical personnel who were able to identify the illness by the sound of my cough, no testing was done.

The medical community needs to be more pro-active in promoting booster shots for teens and adults. They should also make sure once a diagnosis is made that the patient or their guardian understands how contagious pertussis is.

My son Chase, 6 months of age, was having "blue spells" where he would stop breathing, turn blue, become lifeless and would have to be resuscitated. Sleep Apnea was confirmed with an abnormal sleep study. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. He was very weak, had little to no growth (he fell off the growth charts) and had horrible choking congestion. They also called them "breath holding spells", reflux, seizures, heart problems, Cystic Fibrosis, growth hormone deficiency and allergies. The cough began very mild and then progressed after he was diagnosed. When the cough became severe he would mainly cough all night, but never with a "whoop", and there was a rattle when he would breathe.

This all began in June and he was hospitalized in August after several visits back and forth to the Doctor. In September he was tested for pertussis, after my urging, with two separate nose cultures and a PCR test.

I believe my mother became infected after his first hospital stay in June. At the end of August my husband and I started having flu like symptoms along with a severe cough. The three of us were never diagnosed, but were assumed to have had pertussis. Chase started a new daycare the month the symptoms began and I suspect that's where he contracted the pertussis.

I am very upset that we were basically shrugged off when I suggested pertussis. They kept saying it wasn't pertussis since he did not have a "whooping" cough and was up to date on his vaccinations. I never want to see another parent go through the nightmare we lived for so many months. I had to take a leave of absence from work to care for him because he would stop breathing so often and had to be on an apnea monitor 24hours a day/7 days a week.

It has been almost 4 months since my daughter began her coughing fits. She was 17 months old when I first took her to the doctor, and they thought she had allergies compounded with teething. Then they thought she had "a touch of pneumonia." They thought the cough was from the unusual amount of congestion and post nasal drip. I was more worried than they were. They didn't see the gasping and turning blue around her mouth, or the coughing to the point of vomiting. She was put on Zithromax with no luck and then went on Erythromycin. She still whooped and gagged and vomited and would collapse in her crib from the sheer exhaustion from the coughing fits. No one told me that antibiotics wouldn't "cure" the cough. I didn't know that the cough would last for about three months even with treatment. When the dry Santa Ana winds and the smoke from the fires came, the cough seemed to get even worse. I am thankful that no one else came down with this, but am very frustrated as I listen to her coughing in the crib as I write this.

My 2 older brothers received the Pertussis immunization in the 1970's. My oldest brother died from "swelling in the brain" and my other brother became epileptic. I am debating about getting my 2 youngest daughters immunized now that whooping cough is returning. Do you have any medical information or suggestions?

Editor's Note:
How great that you are considering immunizations to protect your children from the whooping cough (pertussis)! The number of people diagnosed with pertussis has greatly increased in the last few years, so vaccinating your child against preventable diseases is more important than ever. Pertussis starts as a mild upper respiratory infection but progresses to cause coughing spells so bad that children can have problems eating, sleeping or breathing. It can take weeks to months for the cough to resolve even with appropriate antibiotic treatment. Pertussis is most severe in infants. Complications can include pneumonia, seizures brain damage and death. Pertussis is contagious with an incubation period range from 5 to 21 days. The child may look perfectly fine between coughing episodes, so let your health care provider know what symptoms you see at home.

Some children should not get vaccines, so talk with your health care provider to determine if there are any contraindications for your children. If you choose to get the vaccines, you need to keep in mind that severe reactions are very rare...less than one out a million doses. Your brothers' health problems may not have been related to the vaccines they received. No vaccines are 100% effective. Neither infection nor immunization can provide lifelong immunity, so boosters are important.

At age 15 months, my daughter had a terrible cough that just wouldn't quit. We made multiple visits to our nurse practitioner and the ER. It is amazing that it took three months to even consider pertussis as a diagnosis. After an albuterol treatment in the office my daughter started to cry. At the end of her crying she made a slight "whoop" and they stopped in their tracks. They sent her to the hospital and did a pertussis swab. They just could not believe it was possible since my daughter had just had her last pertussis vaccination within months of the diagnosis. We were quarantined in our home for five days and the whole family took antibiotics.

I was diagnosed with pneumonia at age 43 years old. The diagnosis was confirmed with a chest x-ray, but the heavy coughing fits continued to linger long after the pneumonia cleared. After weeks of coughing, different antibiotics, more x-rays and even a CT scan, the doctors were checking for anything and everything. It took eight weeks before I was diagnosed with pertussis. I do not know where I got pertussis. I have always been healthy so I was surprised with this double diagnosis of pneumonia and pertussis.

Over two months later, I am still coughing and tired. I had no idea vaccinations wore off in adulthood.

My 4 year old son, who has been fully vaccinated and is up to date on all of his boosters was diagnosed with pertussis. He had been coughing for 3 weeks and sometimes the coughing was so bad that he vomited. We took him to his pediatrician who believed that it was his asthma acting up. He caught it from his cousin, but his sister, father, grandfather, and I were all sick. They finally did a nasal swab and diagnosed him with pertussis.

I am 46 years old and was sick for at least a couple of months with a persistent cough. I work in construction, so I didn't think anything of it. When the cough turned in to gagging spells, I decided to go to the hospital. I never gave it much thought since we all got immunized for diseases when we were children. At the hospital they gave me a blood test which showed that I had been exposed to pertussis. All of the vaccines that we got when we were kids wear off by the time you are in your twenties. Did you ever wonder why it is recommended or sometimes mandatory for kids going off to college to get immunized again against measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), pertussis, and meningitis? It's because vaccines wear off after time. If you are an adult, you should consider getting re-immunized if recommended by your health care provider. We are all at risk!

My daughter had a cough and was diagnosed with pertussis when she was 10 months old. Her father was a paramedic and had transferred a little boy to the hospital who had a cough. They were not aware that he had pertussis until a few days later. In the mean time, he brought it home and our daughter caught it. She had severe coughing spells every couple of hours and I would have to watch her carefully to make sure she caught her breath again. She never vomited afterwards and she seemed happy in between the coughing spells. You would never know that she was sick other than when she began to cough. She was breastfed at the time and I believe that she had a mild case of pertussis because of that. After 4 days of the coughing spells, we took her to the emergency room where they did a nasal swipe and diagnosed her with pertussis. The cough got much better after about 6 weeks, but it lingered for about 3 months. She is almost 3 years old now, and she is prone to coughing hard whenever she gets herself into a crying fit.

My asthmatic 10 year old son presented with cold-like symptoms that included a horrible cough. Once I determined that it was not a cold, I took him to his pediatrician who said it must be nasal allergies and prescribed Flonase nasal spray. Two weeks later, after that did not work, I took him to another physician for a second opinion because my asthmatic child was having extreme difficulty breathing between coughing episodes. I was told that it was a virus and to let it run its course. It was one month after the onset of symptoms when my child was rushed to the emergency room of the local children’s hospital in respiratory arrest with hemorrhaging in both eyes (from the broken blood vessels as a result of the violent coughing). That is when they did testing and confirmed that he not only had whooping cough, complicated by asthma, but also RSV. They performed a test where a small wire was inserted up his nose and confirmed pertussis. They also flushed fluid up his nose to collect cells which tested positive for RSV.

My 13 year old son started with initial cold symptoms which then progressed into severe coughing fits after 10 days. The coughs were characterized by short, forceful, desperate coughs followed by a rapid high pitched sound of drawing in for air. Then many times hr would end by vomiting. We suspect that he may have caught it at summer camp since he came home one day with general symptoms of a cold with low grade fever, malaise, and runny nose. We took him to the family doctor about 3 ½ weeks after the onset of symptoms and the doctor suspected mycoplasm (a primary cause of non-bacterial pneumonia) or something like it, but did not perform any diagnostic tests and prescribed Erythromycin (which I now know is the treatment of choice for pertussis). I am not sure it really made a difference in the progression of his disease.

His case is not reported properly because the doctor will not acknowledge the symptoms as whooping cough. We are now eight weeks into it and I realize that it is too late to obtain a definitive diagnosis. I am discouraged that the doctor blew me off as if I am a crazy mom. I am in fact an RN. I didn't like being treated like I "couldn't possibly know what I was talking about". I only wish I had figured out what he had earlier in our experience. The coughing fits are less and less now (maybe only two or three per day). He is struggling with tiredness and poor appetite, as well as an occasional coughing fit brought on mostly with physical activity like running or soccer practice.
 

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My two daughters and I were all sick for several three weeks with symptoms of harsh coughing to the point of vomiting. My daughters are 13 and 14 years old and I am 45. We all thought that we had the same very bad cold, but after three weeks of coughing, the “whooping” sound started, so I took all of us to a clinic where they performed nasopharyngeal swabs on all of us. In 48 hours, all 3 swabs came back positive for pertussis and we were all put on Biaxin for 2 weeks.

My elderly father was also staying with us at a cottage during the first week our cough started, and he was diagnosed with pneumonia, but now I suspect that he may have had pertussis too. We think that my 14 year old daughter may have caught it from a 7 year old girl who she babysits and who has not been immunized. The girl was sick and coughing and her mother claimed that she had strep throat. It was very unexpected to be diagnosed with pertussis. I work in a pediatric hospital and was mortified that I may have exposed immunocompromized patients to this illness.

All of our immunizations are up to date and I feel like we did our part, but yet this highly contagious illness is at large in the community. I spent many sleepless nights listening for choking spells that often ended in an inability to breath. As you can imagine, spending the entire summer locked in the house with three people hacking to the point of vomiting was very unpleasant. It was a nightmare!
 

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