Whooping Cough is Pertussis and It Sucks
While whooping cough is growing, many people don’t know what it is
Cases of whooping cough are increasing across the United States. For example, in Michigan, between 2017 and 2018, the state averaged 596 cases each year. As of October 28, there were 830 confirmed cases this year. More than half were kids between the ages of 5 and 17, and 66% of cases were in people who were unvaccinated or hadn’t received a vaccine in more than 5 years.
Whooping cough, named because of a distinctive “whooping” sound associated with the cough (and difficulty breathing), typically starts with cold-like symptoms. In babies and young children, there are often pauses in breathing instead of coughing (apnea) that can result in a blue tinge to the skin caused by shortness of breath. As the disease progresses, the coughing becomes severe. It is particularly dangerous for infants under the age of 1, who have high risk of pneumonia, brain damage and death.
And it’s largely preventable with vaccines. Known as DTaP or Tdap, these vaccines protect against pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus. DTaP is for children under the age of 7, while Tdap is for adolescents and adults. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the vaccines for infants, children, adolescents, pregnant people, and adults who haven’t received the vaccine as adolescents or adults.
Vaccination rates have been dropping since January 2020.
According to the CDC, as of November 30, there were 28,000 reported cases in the U.S., six times as many as in the same period last year. Prior to the development of the pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, there were more than 200,000 cases each year.
Yet a recent survey by the Annenburg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that many people aren’t familiar with the symptoms of the disease. Thirty percent (30%) didn’t know if pertussis is the same as whooping cough, with another third not knowing if a vaccine exists—yes and yes.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), stated, “The MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella, is colloquially referred to as the measles vaccine. Instead of speaking about the DTaP and Tdap vaccines and using the unfamiliar term ‘pertussis,’ public health communicators should reiterate that our best defense against whooping cough is the whooping cough vaccine.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, complications from the intensity of the coughing include bruised or cracked ribs, abdominal hernias, and broken blood vessels in the skin or eyes. In infants, especially those 6 months and younger, complications include pneumonia, slows or halted breathing, dehydration or weight loss, seizures and brain damage.
Globally, there are about 24.1 million cases per year, with about 160,700 deaths in children younger than age 5. All pretty much preventable with a simple and safe vaccination.