airway

John Taylor, the South London Coroner, told the jury that there was not sufficient evidence to conclude that Maria was assaulted on the ward, or that someone else had pushed socks into her airway.

Dr Khare said such coughs respond best to bronchodilators - medicines that open up the airways - preferably through inhalers or nebulisers, though many doctors still rely on syrups that offer only limited relief.

“It is definitely still a severe disease in our youngest kids ... whose airways are small and whose immune systems are less mature,” Singh said.

Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and airways which can be fatal, particularly for babies.

"Although the Cold War is over between Russia and the US, they're constantly patrolling our airways," Anchorage resident Russell Wilson tells me while fishing.