If you thought whooping cough went the way of beriberi and other 19th-century diseases with fanciful names, think again.

Whooping cough is back with a vengeance with the worse outbreak in the United States in 50 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of this month, 46 states have reported increases in cases compared with 2011. The state of Washington has declared an epidemic with more than 3,000 reported cases.

Since the start of July the total number of U.S. cases for 2012 has climbed from approximately 18,000 to 22,000, according to the CDC. The total reflects twice the number of cases seen this time last year.

The reason, in part, is a drop in vaccination rates and, some speculate, a weaker vaccine. The CDC and other health authorities recommend that older children, in particular, receive a booster shot before returning to school. Most adults need one, too. [5 Dangerous Vaccination Myths]

Get a shot, spare a rib

The aptly named whooping cough — known medically as pertussis (Latin for "thorough cough") and colloquially as the 100-day cough — is a high-pitch, rib-cracking cough that can last for more than two months and is often fatal among infants. Thirteen people, mostly children, have died so far this year from whooping cough in the United States, according to the CDC, and the situation will likely get worse by winter.

The pertussis vaccine is largely effective in preventing the disease, and this usually is packaged in the United States as the DTaP vaccine, short for diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis. The CDC recommends that children get five doses of this vaccine staggered between ages 2 months and 6 years.

The good news is that primary coverage is rather high. The CDC estimates that 95 percent of U.S. children receive the first three doses, and about 85 percent get the fourth. (Data are lacking on the fifth dose.)

The bad news is that 5 percent of children, or millions of individuals, are not vaccinated at all, for reasons that include moral objections to vaccines or poor access to healthcare. These children are vulnerable to and potential carriers of the pertussis bacteria.

"Individuals who are not vaccinated against whooping cough have eight times the risk of infection compared to people who are fully vaccinated, [and] vaccination rates have steadily declined over recent years," said Heidi Renner, assistant professor of pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

The combination of falling vaccination rates, lack of full vaccination, and waning immunity means that most Americans are vulnerable, Renner said. "Shockingly, only 8.2 percent of U.S. adults have received the recommended pertussis booster," Renner told LiveScience.

However, whooping cough's steady resurgence is a bit of a mystery among doctors. In a letter published last week in the British Medical Journal, Douglas Jenkinson, a retired physician who studied the disease for decades, attributed the increase to better diagnosis and reporting. And earlier this month in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, James Cherry, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, suggested that the current DTaP vaccine is weaker than the DTP vaccine used two decades ago. [7 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

1 Comments

1. 1. Archimedes 10:34 AM 8/31/12

   Studies have shown that health care providers often are infected with Pertussis with the result that patients, whose immune systems are often compromised because of disease, are quickly infected by the same. Thus, in any environment in which there are many individuals, especially the elderly, the young, or the ill, the chances of transmission and infection with Pertussis are amplified. What does this mean for the individual? Take the DTaP vaccine both to prevent transmission of Pertussis and to protect yourself against the disease. If you become ill and/or disabled; and, as a result, must expose yourself to the health care environment, it is likely that you will be exposed to Pertussis when your immune system is compromised. DTaP vaccination will diminish significantly the chances both infection and increased mortality resulting from the same. I obtained the DTaP vaccination within the last 9 months at a local VA Administration hospital and experienced no side affects from the same.

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