Genealogy Chat

I was one of the 'test group' of children who received a modified form of the Whooping Cough Vaccine after the first scare. It gave me Whooping Cough! And I had it in a mild form, every winter until my late teens. I can remember my Gran making a steam blanket to try to help me breathe - I had a coughing fit and threw up in the basin of hot water, all over the blanket and my Gran's slippers. She wasn't amused. An interesting side-line to this, when I was about ten, we had a TB test at school. I was the only child who had a positive reaction, which meant that either I had had it, or I had a natural immunity. The Doctors were very interested in this and it later emerged that the type of test vaccine I had been given for Whooping Cough actually gave an immunity to TB. Marjorie

It is a Virus. Virus = vaccine Bacteria = antibiotic

I am sure that a lot of poor little children died of illnesses that just don't affect people so much these days. Perhaps they can all be cured since antibiotics were introduced. My dad's baby brother died of diptheria, which I haven't heard of for years. I can remember having scarlet fever in 1954 when I was 6. I was in bed for the whole of the 6 weeks summer holidays (and it was a very hot summer!). After I got better, the flat had to be fumigated. Some men from what I assume was the Health Department or something similar came, sealed all the windows with tape and fumigated the place. I can remember my mum being cross because she wanted to go shopping and they wouldn't let her go back in to get her coat. The lady from the flat upstairs poured disinfectant round our front door! Funny what you can remember from so long ago, isn't it?

My son was the same as Paul's. He had it last year when he was about 8 or 9 months old. Again, said it was one of those things. Funnily enough, his sister, who was not quite 3 at the time, didn't get it, yet both of them had been vaccinated! Lou

Thanks everyone. Luckily the only disease I've ever experienced (in childhood at least) is Chicken Pox! Was vaccinated for the rest of them, I assume. Chloe

my son was born in 1989 and when he was about 6 months he got whooping cough, he spent a few weeks in a oxygen bed and they couldnt answer why he got it and where...just put it down to one of things that babies catch... michelle

Yes I had it too - 1976. No idea how I got it as no-one else I knew ever got it. An awful, awful thing to have. I clearly remember the panic of not being able to breathe. I was off school for 10 weeks and the whoop of the cough lasted for months. I think people forget that these childhood diseases, mumps, measles etc can still kill or leave permanant physical disability. I have even know people to have 'measles parties' so other kids catch it deliberately and get it over with!! Mad. Julie

I also had Whooping Cough, it seems to be one of those illness' that you will always remember. it was also in the late 60s. Mine went on for so long that my mum took me to see another doctor as i was'nt getting any better. He told her to give me liver every day., so she did & i got better, but just the sight of it now. Shaz

My Mother refused to have me vaccinated (born 1964) I got whooping cough, measles and mumps in my first year of school. I can remember all of them. Whooping cough- being taught the alphabet on my blackboard by my Nan, having a coughing fit and then throwing up. Measles- my Mother refusing to open the living room curtains because of the light (pointless as if your sensitive to light with measles its because you have severe complications and need hospitalisation) Mumps- Not feeling well and my Mum bringing me breakfast in bed (toast) I nearly went through the roof. (Mumps is an infection in the salivary glands which stops you producing saliva, somewhat important when your trying to swallow toast)

Yes, I remember having it early 60's. You used to cough in a long whooping noise, hence the name! I can remember being propped up in bed, tears running down my face and not being able to get my breath. You forget kids died of these things before mass innoculation. Another one was mumps, boy that hurt, can still remember the pain trying to move your head with big hampster face. And so many kids seemed to get polio didnt they.

I believe it got the name whooping because of the noise made when coughing? It was often the way to diagnose the illness because of the distinct cough.

They started testing it in Britain in 1947. I found this on a website,its quite interesting,I learned all this for my nursery nurse training,didnt remember any of it. 1936 Pertussis vaccine introduced in the United States. Autism begins to appear in children shortly thereafter. (Autism: A mental illness of children characterised by inability to communicate or to relate to other people and, often, mental subnormality). 1947 The British Medical Research Council begins testing 50,000 children in Britain with the Pertussis vaccine. All children tested are more than 14 months old (not newborns). Eight infants had convulsions within 72 hours of the shot, 34 had convulsions within 28 days of the shot. British doctors denied a connection between the vaccine and the convulsions, declaring the tests a success and began administering it to all British children. Despite the Fact that none of the tests were conducted on children under 14 months old (newborns and babies), the United States holds the tests in evidence that the vaccine is safe for newborns as young as 6 weeks of age . The testing would continue until 1957. 1948 Randolph K. Byers and Frederick C. Moll of the Harvard Medical School publish an article describing children who had suffered brain damage after receiving Pertussis vaccine. The findings provided the first clear evidence that the vaccine caused serious neurological complications in children. I knew a girl who contracted it when she was a baby.It left her mentally and physically disabled and she died in her teens Anna :-)

IT WAS HORRENDOUS! Think i was about 6 - didn't have the jab cause i'd had problems with other jabs and being adopted they didn't want to take the chance. Still have an image in my mind - wearing a yellow rose printed quilted dressing gown, on the landing whislt dad was up in the loft , and me having a coughing spasm . Clearly remember holding myself up on the ladder so i didn't 'cough' myself over.dad couldn't get down from the loft to comfort me because i just couldn't let go.... jess

I too had whooping cough in the 60s. No idea how I caught it: none of my friends, family or people in my class appear to have had it. (Perhaps I got it off Jess!) One single whoop, but I was off school in quarantine for the better part of a term.

Wow, was it really that bad? Does anyone know when the vaccine was made? Chloe

Going on from what Anna Said, i was the only person in my school that caught it, Must have liked me! Can still remember coughing now - from the tips of your toes to the top of your head - made your eyes fill with tears

Thanks Anna and Jess. Quick replies! Really sad, poor little boy, and around Christmas. Chloe

How do you catch it? From somebody else who has it. The bacteria that cause it are carried in the lungs, throat and nose. So for you to catch it you have to inhale the bacteria that somebody else has coughed out. They do not live outside the body and so it has to be somebody who has coughed into the same air that you are breathing. Although contacts in the same house are likely to get it, it can also pass easily between friends, especially children. It does not pass so easily between adults, who tend to cough away from people rather than directly over them. It is most infectious in the first 2 weeks when it seems no different from an ordinary cough and cold. (see early symptoms which is a child of the symptoms page) hope that helps a bit Chloe lol Anna :-)

Looks like it a bacterial infection: Whooping cough is an infection of the lungs with a bacterium known as Bordetella pertussis. It can effect anybody, but causes most trouble in the very young. Whooping cough really refers to infections caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, but an identical illness is produced by Bordetella parapertussis, Bordetella bronchiseptica and several types of adenovirus. Bordetella pertussis has an incubation period of 12 to 15 days but this may be as long as 20 days. It is spread by droplets from the respiratory tract, rarely it may also spread on clothes, toys, etc. The disease is most contagious during the cold-like initial phase (catarrhal phase).

LOL, thanks Jess! x