Can We Be Rid of Whooping Cough?

Whenever I hear of a new death from whooping cough, I feel the great responsibility that falls upon us physicians. This cough is one of the killers of children: 95 percent of its victims are five years old or younger, and 85 percent of its deaths range in age between two years and a few months, most of them in the first year.

Among the marks of this disease is that it kills all vitality in the patient and weakens all his resistance, so that the child becomes prey to secondary infections such as influenza and chest catarrh. These often lead to the death of a child who could have been saved by preventing or treating the whooping cough.

Today, however, we are able to overcome every possibility of our children dying of this cough. The special whooping-cough vaccine, prepared and developed by Dr. Sauer in Chicago, can give the child immunity against the disease if it is used at the right time and in the right quantity. As for the time, it should be as early as the doctor requires — usually between the third and sixth month, when the child is most susceptible to diseases and his chance of overcoming death is slight.

The preferred method of giving the vaccine is to administer three injections, with a period of four weeks between one and the next. In modern medicine the whooping-cough vaccine is given together with others, such as the diphtheria injection and the rest, and thus the child is given immunity against all these diseases at one and the same time. Naturally these injections will trouble him for a day or two, and the place of the needle will redden and swell; but these slight reactions are nothing beside the danger and pain that come with the disease itself. The immunity lasts through the dangerous years of childhood; but it is preferable that the child be given another supporting injection at the age of two and a half or three.

And since the children who are given immunity injections are still few in number, you should know something, madam, about the disease itself and about the methods of treating it by which you may save a child dear to you.

The disease is slow at its onset; its first sign is a dry, difficult cough that turns into a bad cough, especially at night. After two days, fever appears along with the cough, and inflammation of the throat, with much watering in the eye and nose. Signs such as these are a warning to call the doctor, who can shorten the duration of the cough with the newest fast-acting medicines, and can also limit the severity of the cough and the irritation that accompanies it, and ease the sick child's pain.

The mother can work to draw off the child's attention and to calm his agitation as far as she is able. The more the child forgets the cough and the painful spasms he dreads with it, the fewer the fits that attack him. In fits of coughing and vomiting she should carry him gently; and if she sees that he has thrown up everything in his stomach, she should feed him again, especially if this happened directly after he ate. The doctor may call for the child to be placed in the hospital; and here the mother would do well to show cooperation and understanding with the doctor.

The cough lasts anywhere from a few days to three weeks, but its severity and its fits lessen after the first week. So remember that the child may remain this way for as long as a year: whenever he feels a cold coming on, the whooping cough returns. When the fits grow lighter, the child feels active and improved — and this usually comes at the beginning of the dangerous stage of convalescence, since the weakened child may easily be struck by one of the secondary infections. In this stage the child must not be neglected; rather, he should be given sufficient time to rest in his bed, even if the doctor permits him to leave it. He should also be given food suited to him that will nourish his body, such as milk, soup, butter, lightly boiled eggs, cream, cereals, fresh fruit, and vegetables. The doctor may suggest fish oil or one of the vitamins as well.

In the last part of convalescence, when the traces of the cough have grown light, the child should play in the open air and the warmth of the sun, to regain his strength; but beware of his catching a chill or the contagion of a cold from someone sick, which would lead him into infections.

Prompt treatment and the newly devised medicines, together with special care over a period of weeks, can cure and save the child stricken with whooping cough. And how much greater would the benefit be if we gave the child a vaccine against the disease before he is stricken! If mothers only knew that the trouble of three injections spares them the dangers, pains, and consequences of the cough, we could wipe out whooping cough entirely...

Translated from the "Ladies' Home Journal"