Guess what I brought home from Disney? (Plane ride home)

[Savin4Disney]

WHOOPING COUGH! YEP! My doctor and I truly believe that is where I got it from. I got sick (cold -- or so we thought) 7 days after I got home...and 3 weeks later...it is Whooping cough.

I do not go out much as it is winter here and I am unemployed so I am home.

But I still had a great time!

 

[hightown]

Don't know where you live but there's an outbreak here in the St. Louis area. I imagine it's in more places than you realize.

 

[safetymom]

It's easy to blame it on the plane ride but you were exposed to lots of people from the time you left your home to the end of your vacation. It may not be the flight.

 

[ducklite]

I agree with SafetyMom. I got Influenza during our trip to WDW in 2000--was fine coming home, midday the next day I was feeling under the weather and thought I was just exhausted from the trip so I left work around 4:00. By the time the train arrived at the station an hour later it was all I could do to walk off it and drive home. I went to bed and when my husband checked on me later that evening I was running a 103 fever.

Due to the timing there's no place I could have gotten it except WDW. I've felt guilty ever since, as I very possibly exposed a bunch of people to it on the plane (I was asymptomatic at that point).

Sorry you're not feeling well, hope you get better soon!

Anne

 

[Poohbear123]

today, and now I have a cold. I usually get sick after a trip, which is OK as long as I don't get sick BEFORE a trip!

 

[Martha7]

Don't feel badly, Ducklite, there's no way you could have known. To the OP: I hope you can rest up and get better quickly! The idea of actual whooping cough is pretty scary!

 

[Savin4Disney]

I don't think I got it IN Disney World. Since is is spread through direct coughing and sneezing. There was someone on the plane with a "bad" cold.

Either way glad I did not get it before.

 

[nowellsl]

I thought most people were vacinated against whooping cough?! Am I thinking about something else?

 

[Martha7]

They say the normal incubation period for a cold is one week, but I don't know the time period for whooping cough. You may have actually been exposed on the ride down to Orlando, rather than the return flight. Either way, please feel better! They have been saying in the news that cases of whooping cough have been reported. I also thought it had been eradicated for the most part in the U.S. Regardless, feel better!

 

[SeaSpray]

I thought most people were vacinated against whooping cough?! Am I thinking about something else?

First of all, to the OP: You have my sympathies! DS17 had Whooping Cough a couple of years ago and it is a miserable, and often scary, illness to have, and the cough lasted for months.

To nowells: This was my exact question when I found out DS had it! And apparently, YES, children ARE immunized when they are young (it's the "P" part of DPT vaccines they get, the "P" stands for pertussis which is the medical term for whooping cough), but the immunization effects only last until the teen years. The reason for this is because the younger and smaller the child is, the more likely they will die from it. But from the teen years on and into adulthood, you are better able to deal with the illness/survive. DS17 was 15 at the time and is not a small kid, but there were a few times when I wondered if we should rush him to the ER. I seriously thought he was going to drop dead, a couple of times. (And I am not one of those hysterical-rush-my-kid-to-the-doctor kind of mothers! lol)

As it was, I did have him to the doctor's office several times before he was officially diagnosed. Initially it was misdiagnosed as him having an asthma attack/bad cough and cold kind of thing. But nothing was helping his symptoms at all, including his nebulizer and the prescription medications they were giving him. Now that I have seen firsthand what someone with WC (pertussis) looks and sounds like, I'll never forget it.

Also, when a family member gets diagnosed with WC, they recommend the entire household get put on prophylactic (preventative) antibiotics. There is some debate as to whether this works to prevent others in the house from catching WC, but in our case, neither DS14 (13 at the time), DH, nor myself came down with it.

 

[SeaSpray]

They say the normal incubation period for a cold is one week, but I don't know the time period for whooping cough. You may have actually been exposed on the ride down to Orlando, rather than the return flight. Either way, please feel better! They have been saying in the news that cases of whooping cough have been reported. I also thought it had been eradicated for the most part in the U.S. Regardless, feel better!

When my DS got Whooping Cough a few years ago I did a lot of research on it. I thought the same as you; that it'd been eradicated, like the black plaque or polio or something. lol But NO, Whooping Cough is alive and well in the US and there are outbreaks every single year.

 

[manning]

Here is a little hint. It was told to me by a doctor. To reduce the chance of getting a cold rub your hands together vigorously. The heat generated by the friction will kill the virus. It can't survive the heat.

 

[seashoreCM]

I thought most people were vacinated against whooping cough?! Am I thinking about something else?

For adults no, or at least not any more. After I first read this thread I called my health care provider to ask the question and they said that whooping cough immunization is not routinely given, only given for unusual circumstances such as travel to a country where health care is somewhat less sophisticated.

Regular immunization for adults nowadays is flu shots annually (when available) and tetanus shots every ten years.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[ptrbryant]

The pertussis vaccine recommended for ALL children is the same as a vaccine for whooping cough. When DS was a couple of months old and had his first DPT shot (diptheria, pertussis, tetanus), he had a bad reaction to the vaccine. The pediatrician said this is almost always due to the pertussis part of the vaccine, so his later shots were only DT. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had discussions with parents who are very anti-vaccine in general. I believe one of the reasons whooping cough is returning is that a sizeable number of parents are refusing to have the vaccine for their children...this is also happening with measles. Their refusal mainly has to due with concerns over side-effects and the belief that there's a link between autism and the mercury that until recently was in most childhood vaccinations.

Just adding to the "why is whooping cough returning?" issue!

Karla B.