For my previous post on this topic go here.

My daughter has been very ill since last weekend so we took her to the doctor on Monday, and told them of the information from her school that a case of whooping cough had been diagnosed earlier in June. I received the call yesterday afternoon from the nurse at my daughter’s pediatrician’s office: the test she had on Monday administered by her doctor showed she had pertussis (a/k/a whooping cough) and not some rhinovirus or the common cold.

My daughter had her last pertussis booster shot in 2006, so we thought we were in the clear, but obviously the new vaccine developed in 1997 (which doesn’t use the whole cell of the pertussis bacterium to make) is less effective than the prior vaccine and the immunity it provides wanes more quickly. So now everyone in our family is on antibiotics since we have all been exposed to the pertussis bacteria as a result of our constant contact with her.

Do yourself a favor. There is a pertussis epidemic spreading throughout the US this year. It hit Washington State first and hardest, but it has spread to many other states, including the Mountain West, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. If you have cold symptoms, please check to see if there has been any reported pertussis cases in your state and community.

Even if you have had your TDaP (Tetanus, Diphtheria and acelluar Pertussis) vaccine booster within the past ten years, you may still get this illness. It can be life-threatening to infants, the elderly, people with diabetes and people with compromised immune systems. Plus, if undiagnosed within the first 2-3 weeks, the antibiotics used to fight a pertussis infection will be ineffective. This is because the severe cough (which can last for months) only comes after the pertussis bacteria has died and released toxins into your lungs.

The weeks to months-long cough is a by-product of the toxins and adults have had such severe coughing spells that they succumb to exhaustion, and on occasion even break ribs. The outbreak is spreading quickly this year, in part due to the less effective acelluar pertussis vaccine (which is synthesized from only some of the protein antigens of the pertussis bacteria), and in part because many people, especially adults are not up to date with their vaccinations. Don’t risk losing your summer to this illness, and don’t place the more vulnerable members of our society at risk, for though you may catch a mild case, you can spread the disease to others who may then pass it on to someone — a child, or other person at risk — for whom this illness could have life altering effects.

If your last booster shot was more than five years ago, get another one. And if you get cold like symptoms (congestion, sore throat or cough) check with your doctor to see if a test for pertussis is recommended. If my daughter’s high school had not informed us that there had been a case diagnosed at her school we would have never known to check for this disease. We would never have considered that we might be at risk of contracting a disease for which we were vaccinated as children. Yet my daughter did, and I also came down with cold-like symptoms from being around her. And I had my booster shot a week before she became sick.

She was deathly ill – unable to sleep, coughing, sore throat — and not a happy camper. My symptoms were not as severe as hers (no cough thankfully), so perhaps the booster shot I had the week before she became ill provided some immunity, but I feel much safer now knowing that my family is receiving the proper treatment so our exposure to this bacterial illness will not result in a more severe condition. I also feel good that we will soon no longer be potential carriers of this disease.