Making a Comeback

Once a stable disease, pertussis, or whooping cough, is a bacterial disease caused by severe and excessive coughing. It is a contagious disease that can last up to eight weeks, from getting it to the end of the second phase. Also it is a disease that takes a while to recover from. In the early 1900s, pertussis was a major and also a deadly disease but in the next fifty years it began to wane. After the 1980s, however, it began to rise gradually even after new vaccines were created for it. Now it’s an epidemic in California and also there have been outbreaks in New York, South Carolina, and Michigan. Warnings were already set in Pennsylvania where a large number of people were affected. The March of Dimes is also trying to inform people about pertussis by creating websites and with public announcements. Nobody knows why the number of people with pertussis began to rise again. But some believe that it is because of vaccines wearing off in adults. Another belief is that doctors have been using fewer antibiotics to treat colds and mild coughs fearing that it may lead to a drug- resistant bacteria. Research has been conducted to show that the number of people vaccinated did not have anything to do with the raise of pertussis because the rate was the same with towns with high vaccination and with low ones. Not only is finding out the main cause of the rise in pertussis difficult but also testing for it. To test for pertussis, doctors can either perform a culture of nasal secretions or a cheek swab but it is only useful during the first few days of getting pertussis, before antibiotics are given. And it is also possible for inexperienced doctors to make a wrong diagnosis.

This relates to biology because it has to do with disease. This article involves a very contagious and also possibly deadly disease. Also finding the reason why this bacteria is spreading and regaining its strength, also relates it to biology.

Not only does it relate to biology but also learning about this is very important to us. This disease is spreading to other parts of the United States and possibly to our town. Learning this can make us more aware of when other people are sick. And this tells us to be more careful when someone in our family may be sick so we can inform a doctor, to see if they may have the disease.

Source:http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/vaccination-is-steady-but-pertussis-is-surging/?ref=science