At 04:28 PM 11/11/02 -0500, Jean Marie Henderson wrote:
>I student of mine has recently had whooping cough. We have not had lessons
>for three weeks now. How long does it take to recover? Is it contagious?
>How can we tell when it's OK for her to sing again? Her Mom doesn't want to
>pay the money to take her to an ENT.
Dear Jean Marie,
She likely won't need to see an ENT. However, there may be several causes
for "whooping cough". Dr M has already mentioned P. pertussis. Similar
symptoms may be caused by B. parapertusis (I may be dating myself), and a
couple of different adenoviruses. Erythromycin can shorten the course for
the two bacterial forms but will do nothing for the viruses, so a visit to
her FP, cultures and swabs may be helpful in deciding therapy. On the
other hand, in adolescents and adults, as long as breathing is not
compromised, sometimes you just treat symptomatically (mucolytics,
hydration, rest, etc). This latter is important in singers to minimize
trauma to the larynx from the coughing. Oh, yeah--it IS contagious; spread
through aerosolized droplets from the coughing.
GWendel, T (...MD, PhD, etc)
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