2 January

Whooping cough part 2. Because it might get you next, whether you're vaccinated or not, and it isn't nice. But there are things you can do that can make you suffer a lot less. The treatment of whooping cough hasn't really changed in a century or more. Effectively there is no treatment that makes much difference, no cough suppressants, inhalers, steroids etc. Antibiotics make no difference to the progression of the disease, unless given very early, and even then the effect isn't large. Whooping cough is also growing in incidence. This isn't just because of people not vaccinating, the vaccines themselves are failing to reduce the incidence of the disease in any permanent way. Great recent summary of what the science is saying at the link below, including "Despite high and increasing vaccination coverage among children and adolescents, pertussis incidence is increasing." You can see that the pro-vax and anti-vax arguments only scratch the surface of what might be going on here, it's complicated. Part 3 will be what you can learn by going back in time about a century, to help defeat this disease.