 [ Symptoms ] how is whooping cough treated [ Disease ] it is a bacterial infection so it can be treated with antibiotics usually erythromycin or similar antibiotics if antibiotics are recommended it is important to take all the doses as prescribed over the counter cough medicines are not recommended and do not really help the prescription medicines that are effective for cough are strong and they are generally avoided in young children and are probably not effective for pertussis it is commonly recommended to minimize the things that can trigger the cough with younger kids try to keep them quiet and limit their activity a humidifier is often used as breathing moist air can soothe the airways infants with severe disease require hospitalization sometimes in intensive care it can be serious enough to require intubation and ventilation    in which a breathing tube is inserted into the throat both to protect the airways and to assist with breathing until they can recover from the infection