Complications of Whooping Cough

Complications are highly likely in babies before they have had their primary immunization (3 shots usually completed by 4 months.) and is  lethal for 1 in 100, even with the best medical care. In the first few years even immunized children can become seriously ill.

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The following applies to older children and adults for whom there are no long term effects

Whooping cough can occasionally lead to the complication of pneumonia in older children and adults.

Uncomplicated whooping cough does NOT cause long term lung damage. 

Bruising in the skin and cracked ribs can happen. Hernias can also result. 

Stress incontinence (leaking urine) is common in women during coughing spasms. It is only temporary.

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Only a small number of people get complications from whooping cough. About 1% of clinically diagnosed cases in my experience. If you only count hospital cases or laboratory proven cases, (which are going to be the more severe cases,)   the proportion of those with complications is greater. But you can only get a true perspective if ALL cases that occur are counted.

This is where many published figures are misleading and  may lead you to believe that whooping cough has a high rate of complications. Because whooping cough goes unrecognised much of the time official figures tend to exaggerate the severity and underestimate the incidence (the number of cases).

Go to symptoms page for sounds and videos

1 in 100 get pneumonia

In my published study of 500 consecutive cases in an English village over 20 years, only 1 in 100 developed significant complications such as pneumonia. NHS website page on pneumonia

Very young babies can die of whooping cough (1 in 100 approximately in developed countries with state of the art care)

The worst complication is death. This is rare except in young babies for whom it is a more exhausting illness than some can stand. In babies it can lead to pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failure, convulsions and coma from encephalopathy in addition to pneumonia. 

 It is thought that some very young babies who get it, do not cough at all, but simply stop breathing.

Temporarily stopping breathing usually comes after a bout of coughing. In the United Kingdom one child in 100 who gets it under the age of six months dies from it. In older children death is very rare, perhaps 1 in 200,000 cases. In the underdeveloped world, the mortality is vastly greater.

There are minor complications that are often described but usually occur only in the most severe cases. These are; bleeding over the white of the eye (subconjunctival haemorrhage), blood spots in the skin (petechiae), tearing of the ligament at the base of the tongue and umbilical hernia. 

All these are caused by congestion of blood or the strain of coughing, retching and vomiting. If you watch the videos and listen to the sound files on the symptoms page you will understand how the severity can cause these traumatic effects.

Textbooks often give misleadingly exaggerated pictures of complications 

All these things are described in textbooks and reading them gives the impression they are very common. In my experience they are uncommon. (Described in my paper on 500 consecutive cases.)

Fainting from whooping cough (cough syncope)

This is relatively common, especially in adults. Any cough can make some people faint but it is more likely in whooping cough because of the severity. There is a fascinating and helpful blog about it. (Opens in new Tab).

Injury from fainting after a paroxysm

Some people faint with paroxysms and may make involuntary jerking movements resembling a fit. They may have no recollection of the faint, but unlike a true fit, they will usually remember the events leading up to it.

Sudden infant death syndrome

It is suspected that undiagnosed whooping cough could possibly be the cause of some  cases of sudden infant death syndrome  (SIDS). This probably happens less now than in the past, since whooping cough is now recognised as a cause, and tests are now available to detect it more easily.

No long term effects

Whooping cough does not cause long term lung damage. (Young babies who have been very ill with it might may be an exception).

Some years ago people thought that whooping cough led to bronchiectasis, a condition in which the main air passages in the lungs become enlarged and distorted. This allows sputum to accumulate and fester, causing the sufferer to have a chronic productive cough and susceptibility to more severe lung infections and general debility. Most cases of bronchiectasis have probably not been caused by whooping cough itself, but possibly by pneumonia complicating it.

 The only evidence I have seen connecting whooping cough with bronchiectasis showed that the connection was with whooping cough complicated by atelectasis. Atelectasis is a section of lung that collapses devoid of air and will usually become infected. This is similar to and in the spectrum as bronchopneumonia, which is usually associated with breathlessness, fever, malaise, and sometimes chest pain.

It is very likely that debilitated or malnourished children will be more prone to atelectasis with whooping cough. That was usual a century ago in the developed world and still pertains in much of the underdeveloped world today.

Does not cause asthma. But asthmatics are more susceptible to whooping cough

More people who have whooping cough have asthma than those who have not had whooping cough. Whooping cough does not cause asthma.  It just so happens that people with asthma are more susceptible to it.

Voice changes

Many sufferers find they are unable to sing or are hoarse for a long time after whooping cough. It usually recovers but it can take a long time. Occasionally it seems permanent.

Breathlessness