DAVAO CITY (PIA) -- A pediatrician from the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) has urged parents whose newborn babies start manifesting signs and symptoms of pertussis to seek immediate medical intervention.

Dr. Ma. Delta Aguilar, chief of SPMC’s Pediatrics-Infectious Disease Cluster for Reemerging Disease, emphasized that pertussis among newborn babies, especially those who are one month old and below and are yet to receive vaccinations, is life-threatening, noting that their immune system is not yet fully developed to fight the disease.

“Kung medyo nakita ninyo inyong anak na murag mahutdan na og hininga sa ka-ubo, these are not things that you can deal with as a parent. You have to consult a doctor,” Aguilar said during the Habi at Kape media forum of the Mindanao Development Authority.

(If you found out that your baby is experiencing difficulty breathing due to non-stop coughing, these are not things that you can deal with as a parent.)

Aguilar also stressed the importance of medical consultation for pertussis cases, as the medications are under the prescription of the doctors and not the usual over-the-counter drugs.

“The antibiotics are not over the counter; they have to be given and measured according to your child’s weight,” she explained.

Nevertheless, she cautioned the parents who resort to home remedies for coughs to not be complacent and still seek medication consultation, especially when the cough remedy does not respond to the conditions of the infants.

“In most cases, kasi cough iyahang presentation, the parents actually take cough remedy, naa silay mga cough syrup; however, if it’s not responding to cough medication and the presentation is quite severe and troublesome diha na sila mo-adto sa mga doctor,” she explained.

(In most cases, when there's a cough, parents usually give cough remedies like cough syrup. However, if the cough doesn't respond to medication and the presentation is severe and troublesome, that's when they go to the doctor.)

We call it whooping kay itsgasping or ubong dalahit or ubong pasigaw na halos mahutdan na’g hininga ang bata,” she explained.

(The most distinctive sound in a cough that is very alarming is not the usual coughing. It's whooping cough; it's gasping. We call it whooping because it's gasping or a cough that's intense and the child almost runs out of breath.)

She said that unlike the coughing for asthma cases, whose patients can still breathe after continuous coughing, for pertussis, coughing is already paroxysm or non-stop coughing to the point that the patients can no longer catch their breath, which she considered alarming.

Moreover, Dr. Aguilar explained that pertussis is contagious, caused by Bordetella pertussis, and is transmissible through droplets.