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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