My next door neighbour has her grandson staying and he is suspected of contracting whooping cough. He has been round to my house and I have been in contact with him over the last three weeks. Should I check with anyone about this?
Hello - My first thought is have you been vaccinated for whooping cough? If so, you should be Ok, if not, it is worth checking with your GP/Rheumy. If you have no symptoms you may already have immunity to the terrible cough, which is particularly distinctive - I wonder why it is only suspected. It also depends on what medication you are on and the state of your own immune system. Hope this helps.
I have never been vaccinated although my brother and sister both had whooping cough when we were children, I did not. That was over sixty years ago. We were all under seven. I am currently on 15mg of pred cutting down to 12.5mg. Apparently the GP said to my neighbour he had never seen a case of whooping cough, I assume they are waiting for the results of a test. I had heard that you should be careful of vaccinations and steroids.
OK, your brother and sister had whooping cough and you did not, when you were children - it could be that as you were immune to it then, and the antibodies are still with you. The biggy you need to steer clear of is chicken pox or shingles - when you are taking steroids it is really bad and you would need medication to counteract within 72 hours. Flu and pneumonia vaccines are given with steroids without any issues beign raised apart from allergies to eggs - why that is I do not know. 15mg to 12.5mg is more than a 10% drop and you may find worsening of symptoms. It may be better if you reduce to 13.5mg instead of 12.5 and then go down to 11. Eileens method is well tried and tested.
I have contacted the local surgery and they are supposed to be phoning me back. Apparently as they have never seen whooping cough they can't recognise it and don't know what to do. The grandchild is two years old and quite often the whoop is not apparent at that age.
The allergy to eggs on flu vaccine is because the vaccine is grown in eggs.
The GP contacted me and said that he did not know if it were whooping cough or not as it was a Friday evening when he saw the child and so he had nowhere to send a swab to for testing, as everything was shut for the weekend!! One does despair. He said I should not bother to do anything even though I was taking steroids and not worry about at.. It looks like it is whooping cough as two of the little boy's friends have now got it.
Hello -The GP's response says it all really - if your neighbour had taken the little one to A & E they would have been able to test the swab test to confirm, instead of palming the patient off, like the surgery did. If you don't have any symptoms - then you are Ok. If any do appear though it should be straight for medical help.
All the best.