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Vaccine In Order For Many As Whooping Cough Rebounds

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By IRENE MAHER, News Channel 8 Medical Editor

Published: October 18, 2007

The number of whooping cough cases in the United States has been creeping up, and that has health experts such as Tampa pediatrician Philip Adler concerned. He had whooping cough as a child and remembers how miserable it made him feel. He also remembers the time when hundreds of kids in his small Connecticut town who had whooping cough were rounded up and walked down to the local gas works.

"They had us march around [and] breathe deeply, the methane gas seeping out of the gas works," Adler says. Town health officials hoped it would be therapeutic in some way. "They didn't know what to do about it, so they gassed us."

Treatments have improved, but whooping cough remains a highly contagious bacterial lung infection known as pertussis. Its common name comes from the whooping sound some patients make when gasping for breath during a bad coughing spell. At one time, whooping cough was considered rare in this country because of our aggressive pertussis vaccination program.

But recently, cases have been on the rise. In 2001, 7,580 cases of whooping cough were reported. In 2005, that number jumped to more than 25,000. Like most other states, Florida is also experiencing an increase in cases. In 2001, just 29 cases were reported. In 2005, there were 208 cases. The disease is especially dangerous in infants and can be deadly.

That's why Adler is so concerned. He says he is seeing more children hospitalized with whooping cough and unfortunately, they are being infected by adult family members. "That's because the vaccine the adults got as children has worn off," he says. It's believed that the vaccine in no longer protective after 10 years.

Making matters worse, adults can have a mild form of the disease and think it's just a bad cold, so they are never diagnosed and properly treated. They can then spread the bacteria to young, unvaccinated family members, with potentially life-threatening consequences.

Ke'Ajah Murray was just 8 days old when she developed a terrible cough and stopped breathing. The tiny infant was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. Her mother, 18-year-old Marissa Howard of Tampa, was shocked to learn the diagnosis. "I had never heard of it. I was like, the whooping cough? What is that?"

Newborns are at highest risk for whooping cough and its complications because they are completely unprotected until old enough to receive their first dose of vaccine. About 80 percent of pertussis deaths occur in children younger than 6 months. The vaccine is given as a series of shots called the DTaP at 2, 4 and 6 months of age, with two boosters recommended by the time the child is 6.

Ke'Ajah spent a month in the hospital and is much better, but it gave her mother quite a scare. "That's very dangerous for a little baby this age," she says. As soon as her daughter turned 2 months old, Howard took her to be immunized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a pertussis booster for adolescents 11 to 18 and for adults, especially if they are going to be around newborns and infants younger than a year old. In Florida, seventh-graders are given a booster, and any adults requesting a tetanus shot are offered a combination vaccine that includes pertussis protection, called the Tdap.

Adler says young women should get a booster before they become pregnant or immediately after the pregnancy. Fathers-to-be should also get a booster. "If grandparents are around, they should get the shot. Anybody that's around a newborn should get immunized with the diphtheria-tetanus-acellular whooping cough vaccine."

Today, fortunately, there's no need for questionable treatments such as methane gas inhalation. Whooping cough is treated successfully with antibiotics, and everyone in the household of a patient is usually treated, as a precaution. In his 50 years as a pediatrician, Adler says he has seen some pretty crazy stuff, but even with new, effective antibiotics, whooping cough is still a serious disease that can take months to recover from.

"The best thing is to prevent it," Adler says. I agree.

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