According to doctors, when the baby was admitted to the hospital, he had typical symptoms of whooping cough. The cough lasted 6-7 hours each time, with phlegm, a red face, purple lips and poor appetite. After the cough, the baby produced long, sticky phlegm like chewing gum.

Coughing attacks usually increase in frequency and severity as the disease progresses and last from 2 to 6 weeks.

The baby was diagnosed with severe pneumonia combined with whooping cough. Medical history revealed that when the baby started coughing, the family immediately took the baby for a check-up.

When the test results showed that the baby had chickenpox, he was hospitalized for treatment. However, after 10 days of severe coughing that did not improve, he was taken to the Pediatrics Department for further treatment.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Le, Deputy Head of the Pediatrics Department, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, since the beginning of the year, the Pediatrics Department has recorded sporadic cases of whooping cough.

Whooping cough often starts silently with symptoms of rhinitis such as nasal congestion, runny nose, mild sore throat, mild dry cough and mild or no fever, lasting about 1-2 weeks.

This stage is easily confused with other mild respiratory tract infection symptoms, especially in young children, because the cough is so little that it is easily mistaken for bronchitis. The above child is also one of such cases.

After the initial stage, the cough begins to become paroxysmal, lasting from 10 to 20 hours or from 30 seconds to 1 minute of continuous coughing without breathing, preventing the child from inhaling oxygen, leading to respiratory failure.

The coughing spell ends with a "whooping" sound on inspiration and may be accompanied by vomiting. Although the child is often exhausted after a coughing spell, between coughing spells he or she appears relatively healthy.

Dr. Le emphasized that paroxysmal coughing attacks often increase in frequency and severity as the disease progresses and last from 2-6 weeks.

These coughs are often worse at night. The illness may be milder and without the characteristic cough in children, adolescents, and adults who have been previously vaccinated.

Usually, from the initial stage until complete recovery, whooping cough lasts about 3 months. The disease can heal on its own and is common in children under 2 months of age.

To protect yourself and your family, especially young children, people need to be fully vaccinated and when having suspicious symptoms, need to go to a medical facility for timely examination and treatment. If whooping cough is detected and treated early, the prognosis will be better.

But if the disease is detected late, it can cause serious complications. Common complications that seriously affect health include: Pneumonia - bronchitis; Respiratory failure;

Hypoxic encephalopathy during respiratory failure and some other complications such as conjunctival hemorrhage, pneumothorax, strangulated hernia, rectal prolapse, otitis media, epilepsy, mental retardation, paralysis, umbilical and rectal hernia, etc. Therefore, early and proper detection and treatment of whooping cough is extremely important.

Also regarding whooping cough, previously, information from the Quang Ninh Province Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital said that in the past 2 months, this hospital examined and hospitalized 13 cases of children with whooping cough with symptoms of continuous coughing for many weeks, fever, cyanosis, exhaustion, fatigue, loss of appetite, etc.

Most of the children who got whooping cough were not vaccinated or had not received enough doses. Many children got whooping cough under 2 months of age, before the recommended age for vaccination (according to the vaccination schedule, children get the first dose of whooping cough vaccine at 2 months of age).

This is a disease that causes dangerous complications and is highly fatal for children under 3 months old. Most of the infected children have not been vaccinated or have not received enough doses of the vaccine. Many children with whooping cough are under 2 months old.

According to doctors, because children under 3 months old have not yet reached the vaccination schedule or have not received enough doses of whooping cough vaccine, the risk of infection is high.

On the other hand, the child does not have immunity or does not receive immunity from the mother because the mother has not been vaccinated against this disease. Another concern is that children under 1 year old with whooping cough progress very quickly. The younger the child is with whooping cough, the higher the mortality rate.

According to Dr. Nguyen Tuan Hai, Safpo/Potec vaccination system, to prevent whooping cough, vaccination is the most important to protect children's health.

To proactively prevent whooping cough, parents need to take note to vaccinate their children against whooping cough fully and on schedule: 1st dose: When the child is 2 months old. 2nd dose: 1 month after the first dose. 3rd dose: 1 month after the second dose. 4th dose: When the child is 18 months old.

Children born to mothers who do not have antibodies against whooping cough are at higher risk of developing the disease than children who receive antibodies from their mothers.

To proactively prevent diseases for children before they reach vaccination age, mothers can get the combined tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis vaccine (Tdap) during pregnancy.

Along with that, it is necessary to implement other measures well such as regularly washing hands with soap, covering mouth when coughing or sneezing; keeping children's body, nose and throat clean every day; ensuring houses, kindergartens and classrooms are airy, clean and have enough light; limiting children from going to crowded places, avoiding contact with people with respiratory diseases, especially whooping cough.

Parents need to distinguish between whooping cough and common cough to take their children to the hospital promptly. When suspecting whooping cough or having any signs of the disease such as: Having many coughs, red or purple face during coughs, each cough lasts for a long time; poor appetite, vomiting a lot; sleeping little; rapid breathing/difficulty breathing, take the child to the hospital for examination, determine the cause and support early treatment.