Vaccines to Prevent Pertussis
The best way to prevent pertussis (whooping cough) among infants, children, teens, and adults is to get vaccinated. Also, keep infants and other people at increased risk for whooping cough complications away from infected people.
There are pertussis vaccines for children, preteens, teens, and adults. The childhood vaccine is called DTaP, and the pertussis booster vaccine for preteens, teens, and adults is called Tdap. These are combination vaccines that protect against three diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
Getting vaccinated against pertussis is especially important for families with and caregivers of new infants.
Children should get five doses of DTaP vaccine, one dose at each of the following ages:
DTaP vaccine may be given at the same visit as other vaccines. DTaP is not licensed for anyone over the age of six. Children older than six, preteens, teens, and adults may get a similar vaccine, Tdap.
Pertussis, a respiratory illness commonly known as whooping cough, is a very contagious disease caused by a type of bacteria. Pertussis is found only in humans and is spread from person-to-person. People with pertussis usually spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in the pertussis bacteria.
Symptoms of pertussis usually develop within seven to ten days after being exposed, but sometimes not for as long as six weeks. Pertussis can cause severe coughing spells, vomiting, and disturbed sleep. It can lead to weight loss, incontinence, rib fractures, and passing out from violent coughing. Although you are often exhausted after a coughing fit, you usually appear fairly well in-between. Coughing fits generally become more common and severe as the illness continues, and can occur more often at night. The illness can be milder (less severe) and the typical "whoop" absent in children, teens, and adults who have been vaccinated. Since symptoms can vary and may look much like the common cold during the early stages of disease, children and adults may not know they have whooping cough and can end up spreading it to infants they are in close contact with.
Everyone is at risk for pertussis, but it is most severe for babies, especially in the first months of life before pertussis immunizations begin; about half of infants younger than one year of age who get the disease are hospitalized. Of infants who are hospitalized with pertussis, one in four get pneumonia (lung infection), one or two in a hundred will have convulsions, and one or two in a hundred will die.
Up to five in 100 preteens, teens, and adults with pertussis are hospitalized. Of those patients, up to two in 100 are diagnosed with pneumonia. The most common complications in a study of adults with pertussis were:
It is especially important for women to get Tdap in the third trimester of every pregnancy so that they can create antibodies and pass this protection to their babies before birth. These antibodies help protect newborns right after birth and until babies are old enough to get their own DTaP vaccine at two months of age.
Getting vaccinated with DTaP or Tdap (depending on your age) is also important for anyone who is around infants. Remember that even fully-vaccinated children and adults can get pertussis. If you are caring for infants, check with your health care provider about what’s best for your situation.
Early symptoms can last for one to two weeks and usually include:
As the disease progresses, the traditional symptoms of pertussis may appear and include:
The coughing fits can go on for up to ten weeks or more.
denotes glossary term in text
Diphtheria: A bacterial disease marked by the formation of a false membrane, especially in the throat, which can cause death.
Tetanus: Toxin-producing bacterial disease marked by painful muscle spasms.
Acellular vaccine: A vaccine containing partial cellular material as opposed to complete cells.
Bacteria: Tiny one-celled organisms present throughout the environment that require a microscope to be seen. While not all bacteria are harmful, some cause disease. Examples of bacterial disease include diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Haemophilus influenza and pneumococcus (pneumonia).
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