Well, now I do.
On the side I do a little vocal coaching, and one of my regular students has been sick for literally weeks and weeks. She has the nastiest cough and had even been to the doctor for it once...walking away with an inhaler and instructions to use it regularly for a couple of weeks and see what happened.
The cough is exacerbated by cold air, and it seemed like it got worse during our lessons because a) she was trying to breathe deeply to sing and b) I have a cat.
She called me this morning to tell me that they've discovered she has whooping cough! I have never known anyone with whooping cough. It sounds like one of those diseases we should have eradicated by now, doesn't it. Makes me thing of books I read when I was a kid, set in the 1800s, like Little Women. (Yes, I think that was Scarlet Fever, but you know what I mean, right?)
Apparently it's becoming more and more common, particularly in adolescents and adults. The vaccine most of us may have received as a child actually wears off, and because it is often misdiagnosed as bronchitis in adults, they may be walking around spreading it without realizing it.
Not only that but the use of antibiotics (which my student has now been given) aren't even proven to eliminate the cough, although it may help reduce its infectious period. Source: NetDoctor
Of course I'm now feeling like I'm at risk to get this, although it seems likely I would have already if I was going to. Of course, she's supposed to have another lesson on Thursday...so there's my chance. Yikes!
That's interesting; a (VERY affluent) local school district had to close its schools for the week because of a sizeable outbreak of WC.
Hmmm...
Posted by: hgstern | December 19, 2005 at 03:41 PM