Whooping cough recovery
Whooping cough is an acute bacterial infection that most often affects the respiratory tract of children. Its distinguishing feature is the prolonged course of the disease with excruciating bouts of coughing. The cause of the disease is infection with the Bordetella bacillus, which spreads by airborne droplets. A child who has suffered a serious illness will have a long rehabilitation.
Diagnosis of the disease
Diagnosing whooping cough is pretty easy. Most importantly, when visiting a pediatrician, focus on recurring bouts of spasmodic coughing. An experienced doctor will prescribe laboratory blood tests, bacteriological analysis of the mucous sections of the posterior pharyngeal wall. In case of infection, a general blood test will show an increased number of leukocytes, usually their number is three or four times the age norm. The venous blood of the child is examined by the method of serological diagnostics, here, in the presence of infection, specific antibodies are detected. This method is the most effective and accurate, but is not used in ordinary children's hospitals. Such an examination is possible only in expensive private clinics. Public institutions do not have funds to purchase and install the necessary laboratory blood analyzers.
Rehabilitation program
Children who have been ill with whooping cough should be regularly examined during the year not only by a pediatrician, but also by doctors of narrow specialties: a neuropathologist and a pulmonologist.
Doctors prescribe a course of rehabilitation, including a complex of proper nutrition, the diet should be saturated with vitamins and minerals. Physiotherapy exercises are considered an important factor in recovery after whooping cough. Simple health-improving gymnastics improves metabolic processes, increases immunity and body resistance to pathogens of an infectious disease. A properly selected medical complex allows the child to restore his strength, a gradual increase in the load has a positive effect on the general condition of the child's body as a whole.
The physical education program itself includes a number of exercises aimed at strengthening the respiratory system, developing the sternum, muscles, shoulders and back. In addition, doctors recommend regular walks on the street, classes in the pool, hardening water procedures.
Sometimes the baby has a severe disease. Therefore, in this case, the child for recovery from whooping cough is sent to sanatoriums and dispensaries located in regions with a suitable climate. When choosing a resort complex, one nuance should be taken into account: the climate zone should not change. Otherwise, the baby will have to adapt to new conditions, which can lead to complications. As a course of rehabilitation after an illness, rest at a camp site may be suitable for children. But this is only for patients who have had a mild illness.
Specialized health facilities are the best solution to the problem of restoring health and strengthening immunity. All conditions for rehabilitation are created in such complexes. On your own, at home, you may not always find time to visit the pool, exercise. In addition, it is necessary to monitor the diet, and sometimes parents do not have the opportunity to prepare healthy meals. There are often cases when it is difficult to create a comfortable healthy environment at home. And in health complexes, on the contrary, this situation always reigns. Small patients are offered a wide range of rehabilitation procedures:
- proper and healthy nutrition;
- herbal medicine, cocktails based on medicinal herbs;
- inhalations using ultrasound, which help to eliminate sputum and restore the respiratory tract;
- galvanic current therapy, which enhances the outflow of lymph from the bronchi and lungs. Promotes the rapid penetration of drugs into the body;
- treatment with infrared radiation, which has an anti-inflammatory effect;
- prevention of allergic reactions caused by intoxication during the course of the disease, using autotransfusion of blood;
- mercury-quartz lamps;
- laser therapy;
- paraffin heating;
- mineral baths and drinking mineral water;
- physiotherapy complex.
The course of wellness procedures is selected for each child individually, depending on his state of health. In addition, children receive the support of professional psychotherapists.
In the process of implementing the rehabilitation program, the predominant role is given to therapy using vitamin complexes. For example, such as "Passilat" and "Hyper". Along with vitamins and minerals, medications are prescribed to normalize the balance of the intestines, which is disturbed as a result of the use of antibiotics during the illness. Basically, children drink Linex.
In order to stimulate the weakened immune system of a small patient, such herbal remedies as tincture of Eleutherococcus, ginseng, as well as immunomodulators, for example, Dibazol, are used.
During the recovery period, many pediatricians recommend taking nootropic drugs to improve metabolic processes and cerebral circulation.
The entire recovery process can take a long time, lasting a year or even more. Sometimes, there are coughing fits, although there are no apparent reasons for this, the symptoms of the disease have already disappeared. The kid coughs at a reflex level, out of habit. Positive emotions, a good book or an interesting game will help to eradicate it.
Children who have been ill with whooping cough develop good immunity to this disease. The body acquires protection against disease for its entire life.
Disease prevention
In medical practice, there are cases when infection with whooping cough leads to death. Children under the age of two years are at risk, since their respiratory system is not yet sufficiently developed, they find it difficult to tolerate even the slightest cough. Therefore, bouts of painful coughing, characteristic of an acute infection, lead to the development of serious pathologies. In order to avoid infection with pertussis pathogens, children are vaccinated. This is a necessary preventive measure. Infants begin to be vaccinated from three months, earlier it is impossible, since the body of a newborn may not be able to cope with the introduced antibodies of the infection.
If we turn to history, then before the advent of a vaccine in the middle of the 20th century, the disease claimed the lives of many children. Statistics show that whooping cough occupied a leading position in the death rate of newborn babies. Mass administration of serum reduced the likelihood of infection. Therefore, it is necessary to vaccinate children, and on time.
Now the preventive vaccination is called DTP, which stands for adsorbed pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus vaccine. As already noted, they put it at a certain age. First at three months, again - at the age of four months to six months. The last vaccination takes place when the child reaches one and a half years. After all three injections of serum, children develop immunity to the Bordetella bacillus, and the resistance of the bacteria remains for twelve years.
There is another way to prevent infection. This is the introduction of quarantine, sick children are isolated from a group of healthy peers.
Recently, DTP vaccinations have been increasingly refused, as many parents consider them unhealthy. Of course, the vaccine sometimes causes some kind of local irritation, which can only be eliminated by drugs. But such situations occur very rarely. Therefore, doctors recommend vaccinating children, the disease will do more harm than a small complication after the administration of the serum.
Strict adherence to all the recommendations and prescriptions of the attending physician guarantees the complete recovery of the child's body and its protection from whooping cough bacteria for the entire life span. The passage of all rehabilitation procedures in a health resort under the supervision of specialists contributes to the rapid restoration of the respiratory system, increased immunity, and strengthening of general health.