>I well remember catching whooping cough as an SHO in paeds. The child I
>caught it off insisted on my carrying him around for an hour or two a day.
>No doubt about what I caught it was the 100 day cough, spasms vomit and
>all and the child had a positive culture. Last year however had another 100
>day cough with spasms although not so severe as the first time. I didn't
>take swabs as I assumed it would be some virus. There was a lot of adults
>and children with the same thing at the time in the practice but I was not
>so convinced by the spasms although it seemed to last 8weeks or so. Perhaps
>there are other viruses that mimic it.
>Stuart
My partner's wife had proven pertussis a while back and a couple of years later
had something very similar for a long time. It turned out to be Mycoplasma
pneumoniae. I think the latter makes you iller and more likely to have xray changes.
But I still think the awful paroxysms followed by hours of no cough at all
is probably almost unique to pertussis.
Doug Jenkinson
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