Whooping cough a.k.a(also known as) Pertussis is a highly contagious disease. Whooping cough is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths. There are 30 to 50 million cases of Pertussis per year. Of these millions of cases there is about three hundred thousand deaths each year. Basically all of these deaths occur in children under twelve months of age. Another quick statistic is that of these 30 to 50 million cases, 90% occor in developing countries.
The disease was easily and widely recognized in as early as 1578. It was later isolated in pure culture in 1906 by Octave Gengou and Jules Bordet. The complete Pertussis genome of 4,086,186 base pairs was sequenced in 2002. Inititially the Whooping Cough is characterized by mild respiratory infection symptoms. These symptoms include a cough, sneezing, and runny nose. This initial stage lasts for about one to two weeks. After this first two week period the cough changes character, with paroxysms of coughing followed by a “whooping” sound. Often times these coughing fits are followed by vomiting. This constant coughing and vomitting in...