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What causes whooping cough?
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Causes of whooping cough
Whooping cough is caused by Bordetella pertussis- gram-negative small rods (coccobacteria). They have a delicate capsule, are immobile, strictly aerobic, highly sensitive to external influences: direct sunlight kills within 1 hour, disinfectants - within a few minutes, produces an exotoxin (pertussis toxin, lymphocytosis-stimulating factor). In addition, the antigenic structure of the pertussis pathogen includes filamentous hemagglutinin, protective agglutininogens, tracheal cytotoxin, dermonecrotoxin, hemolysin, etc.
[ Pathogenesis of whooping cough
Bordetella pertussis enters the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract, multiplies in the cells of the columnar epithelium and spreads through the small bronchi, bronchioles and alveoli by the bronchogenic route. Whooping cough is not accompanied by bacteremia. The main role in the pathogenesis belongs to the toxin, which, acting on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, causes coughing. As a result of prolonged irritation of the nerve receptors of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract by the toxin, the cough takes on the character of spasmodic attacks, during which the breathing rhythm is disturbed (inspiratory pauses). Disturbance of the breathing rhythm during spasmodic cough (apnea) leads to impaired pulmonary ventilation, hemodynamic disorder, which is accompanied by hypoxia and hypoxemia. Hemocirculatory disorders in the cerebral cortex can be accompanied by focal changes and convulsions. In the medulla oblongata, where a stream of impulses continuously arrives, a persistent excitation center of the dominant type of A.A. Ukhtomsky is formed due to prolonged irritation of the receptor apparatus of the respiratory tract. Various non-specific irritants lead to an increase in spasmodic cough.