Suggest Treatment For Laryngitis

Question: My husband, age 67, developed laryngitis about 11 weeks ago. He went to his PCP after about 8 weeks of symptoms (just hoarse voice), and was told there was no evidence of bacterial infection and that there was a virus going around that could last up to 12 weeks. At that point he did not have a cough. My husband got worse and went back to the doctor in another several days. At that time the doc said it had developed into bronchitis, and prescribed a Z-pack (Azithromycin) and an inhaler. We also made an appt with a laryngologist but it's not until Oct 5th. My husband finished the Z-pack Monday morning, and we babysat our 2 month old grandson on Tuesday night. We were told that whatever my husband had, he was no longer contagious after the z-pack, even though he still had laryngitis. However, since he still had symptoms, we called the PCP Wed afternoon to ask him to advocate for us getting into the ENT sooner, but he, instead, called in Rx for prednisone (30mg) and a doxycycline hyclate, which my husband started this morning (Thurs). The baby also, coincidentally, got his first DPT shot on Wed morning. THEN on Wed in the middle of the night (last night) my husband was awakened by a terrible cough which sounded to me like whooping cough. I Googled videos of the sound of pertussis in adults, and it does sound like that. I looked up information on the CDC website and it looks like it might be advisable for the baby's pediatrician to administer post exposure prophylactic antibiotics, but no one seems concerned except me. I would never be able to live with myself if our ignorance or not enough assertiveness harmed our grand baby. The CDC also said that even though the extended family are all up to date on their immunizations, and we on our boosters, it might not be enough to protect the infant. The local health department said that it would be a good idea for my husband to have a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) nasal swab, but our local urgent care nurse had never even heard of it. The urgent care doctor said that after the z-pack it would come back negative anyway. However, I called the CDC and the nurse there said that since my husband developed the "whoop" AFTER finishing the z-pack, that might not be true. I don't know who to believe or whether I should be more assertive and proactive or just relax. What do you advise?

What about any risk to our grandson?

Even if my husband had completed the course of Azithromycin 1.5 days before we babysat?