Vector

[learnteach]

Today, during the first class' egg drop (what a fun project! Great lead in to both space travel and car safety and materials engineering) I began to oddly cough. Big, deep cough from the top of my lungs. Strange. Also feel a little warm.

During the second class a parent left me a message: the student has symptoms identical to whooping cough. I was exposed to the student during the incubation period. I may have whooping cough.

It's not a bad disease...unless you are immunocompromised, under the age of two, or very old. So, I'm going to stay away from gatherings where I will meet those kind of people, and also track symptoms and get the vaccine.

No joke, 5 children have died of this. I hope I don't have it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20008713-10391704.html

Comments

[ladybrid.livejournal.com]

mmmm disease vectors! non immunized fam at my school passed that one around. And M1 and I both got it a few years back from someone at his school.

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

That's potentially *really* crappy. Just having the cough is crappy enough.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. Good luck.

[katanubis.livejournal.com]

For your sake, I hope it isn't whooping cough (pertussis). It can hang on for what seems like forever and the contagious phase is quite long. Not very many adults have taken advantage of the new to adults vaccine and so are at great risk. (And families which don't believe in immunizations should be quarentined away from those who do get their kids vaccinated. They spread it even to kids who have been vaccinated unfortunately.)

I had my pertussis shot (a once in adulthood thing, supposedly) this past fall. (It's part of the tetanus vaccine which most people need to have updated anyway.)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would so suck. I hope you don't have it, too. Didn't we all get vaccinated against this, though?

[freewaydiva.livejournal.com]

Dood. Seriously. You need to stop this sort of thing. Don't make me come over there and get all Pollyanna on your ass...


(I truly hope it's nothing serious, and am fully confident that you can overcome whatever it is. Will you be at the war?)

[sirst.livejournal.com]

"unless you are immunocompromised, under the age of two, or very old"

And thank you. Upper respritory of this sort is dangerous for me. Let me know if you do get hit. And thanks again.

Good luck! Let's hope for a clean bill of health.

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

It's probably too late for antibiotics, but call a doctor. My memory says you need to take them before you exhibit symptoms, but maybe it's before you exhibit the whooping part of the cough.

FYI, The booster shot didn't come out until five years ago, so any kid 15/16 to 19ish probably hadn't had it because they bundle it with tetanus and you have to wait until they can get another tetanus shot. I've been waiting for mine to get old enough to get it again. It's wasn't unusual for whooping cough to break out in middle or high school because the vaccine didn't last.

[jeanvieve.livejournal.com]

"If the pig sneezes, he's fookin' dead!"