http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2046425a7144,00.html
11 September 2002
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By MICHELLE BROOKER
A Canterbury mum fears children with whooping cough are being misdiagnosed
with asthma as the contagious disease grips the region.
Maxine Saunders' son, Daniel, coughed for six weeks and was told three times by a GP that he had asthma before he was diagnosed with whooping cough.
The eight-year-old, who was immunised against the disease, is one of the nine reported cases of whooping cough in Canterbury last week. His seven-year-old sister, Louise, is another.
Health officials are predicting a whooping cough epidemic similar to the one that ravaged the country in 1999.
Crown Public Health figures show there were 62 reported whooping cough cases during August in Canterbury, South Canterbury, and the West Coast, compared with 14 for the same time last year.
Acting Canterbury medical officer of health Daniel Williams said whopping cough had emerged in South Canterbury four months ago and had slowly spread.
Whooping cough starts with cold-like symptoms, which progress within two weeks to severe coughing bursts often followed by a gasp with the characteristic whooping sound. Some people turned blue and/or vomited. It is particularly infectious in its early stages and is a danger to young children.
"Whooping cough occurs in epidemics," he said. "South Canterbury was the start of the epidemic in 1999."
Mrs Saunders is worried that parents whose children have whooping cough symptoms are being told they have asthma.
She said Daniel was given asthma inhalers by his GP which did not work.
"I was very concerned," she said. "I asked him (the GP) for blood tests and antibiotics but he refused."
Mrs Saunders took Daniel to another GP and tests confirmed he had whooping cough.
She knows a dozen children who have the disease. Several have been told they have asthma.
Mrs Saunders said parents should demand blood tests if they thought their child had whooping cough.
Christchurch Hospital clinical director of Paediatrics Professor George Abbott said whooping cough was not an easy disease to diagnose.
"We have had a bad winter and spring with two influenza viruses which leave people coughing for weeks."
Professor Abbott said the disease was highly contagious and if it went undiagnosed it could spread rapidly through day care centres, and schools.
Several children have been admitted to hospital with whooping cough in the last few months.
"We know it is in the community," he said. "It is a bad disease for children. Once a baby gets whooping cough they are often in hospital for several days or weeks.
"They need careful nursing, and support with their breathing when they have terrible coughing spasms."
Professor Abbott said babies or young children with the disease could stop breathing, have fits, go blue, and get nose bleeds and collapsed lungs.
The disease was sometimes fatal in children.
Whooping cough often worsened in spring and summer.
"It is likely we are going to be seeing a lot more cases," he said.
Dr Williams said Crown Public Health had told doctors whooping cough was prevalent in the community.
Dr Williams said adults suffering from whooping cough might just get a hacking cough.
"Immunising children on time is the biggest thing people can do to protect their children," he said.
"Immunisation is 75 to 80 per cent effective at preventing the disease."
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