Our November story, "Whooping Cough: One Mother's Story," generated a lot of interest and questions about pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial infection of the respiratory system, commonly referred to as whooping cough.
Pertussis in infants is on the rise in Washington and has been responsible for two infant deaths. According to Public Health – Seattle & King County, in most cases, infants under six months old who contract pertussis are getting the illness from adults and adolescents with whom they have contact.
For this reason, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have stepped up their efforts to make sure adults and adolescents who are around children get the Tdap booster shot and have expanded their recommendation to adults 65 and older.
Parents, grandparents, siblings, child care providers and health care providers should all get vaccinated, says Dr. Jeff Duchin of Public Health – Seattle & King County. Duchin recommends asking health care providers, care givers and relatives if they have received the booster for pertussis.
At the same time, health care providers should be screening adults for pertussis if they have a cough illness of two weeks or more in duration; they should also screen adults who are in contact with high-risk persons such as infants and pregnant women, or if they work in health care settings, or if they have had contact with a known or suspected pertussis case and have an upper respiratory illness.
However, because whooping cough symptoms are similar to those of a common cold early on, vaccination remains the primary line of defense against the spread of whooping cough – particularly for infants who are too young to have been vaccinated.
"The truth is that there is no easy diagnosis, and there is no easy, affordable test for pertussis," says Dr. Janet Englund, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert at Seattle Children's.
While the vaccination is not infallible, the overall effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine is approximately 80 percent, Englund says. And it is about 90 percent effective in preventing the severe form of the illness, which can be fatal in infants. High vaccination coverage in communities and in families also protects others, who are too young to be vaccinated or whose immunity from vaccination has waned, according to the Center for Disease Control.
The Puget Sound region has very low immunization rates compared to other areas of the country. "For this reason," Englund says, "you can't rely on the fact that your neighbors have been vaccinated to help protect your child against pertussis."
