Symptoms Of Whooping Cough

Whooping Sound

Instead of getting better after a couple of weeks, a person with whooping cough will instead get worse. Coughing becomes much worse, and it will be more difficult to breathe during a coughing fit. Babies often suffer from apnea during their illness because the coughing cuts off their airways temporarily and they cannot breathe.

Loss of breath during a cough can get so bad the person or child has to take a massive gulp of air afterward to try and bring oxygen back into their body. This gasp is what makes the whooping sound that gives pertussis its name. This coughing sound may last for weeks and is often worse at night than during the day. In some cases, the cough can last for up to three months before it goes away completely, but a sick person is only contagious for the first twenty-one days.

Yet not every person infected with whooping cough will make the classic whooping sound. It is more common if the person or child has not been vaccinated, for example, if the baby was too young to have been immunized.