The 100 day cough: What parents need to know

ByRichard Lander, MD

Pertussis is referred to as the 100-day cough, and it can be quite debilitating. The cough is persistent and recurs day in and day out. Once you hear this cough, you will never forget it. The cough is repetitive, easily lasting 30 seconds or more, and has a whoop sound at the end of it, which gives rise to its popular name of “whooping cough.” If you are curious, you can hear the whoop sound on the Internet.

Despite being a vaccine-preventable disease, pertussis is on the rise in the United States. From January through March 2012, there were seven times the number of cases seen in Washington, D.C., than in the same time frame in 2011. I have seen it several times in my practice this year. I have seen it spread from mother to child, among siblings and even from teacher to students.

Pertussis vaccine is given in a series of three injections in the first year of life; a booster during the second year of life and another booster before the start of elementary school; and an additional booster given at aged 11 years.

Therefore, adults of almost all ages are urged to obtain a tetanus-pertussis booster, even if they received a tetanus booster a year ago. Many hospitals across the country are giving the vaccine to new mothers right after delivery and in some progressive hospitals, the vaccine is being offered to new dads and to grandparents.

With this approach, the State of California, which had seen a significant increase in cases and deaths from pertussis in the past few years, has dramatically decreased their rate of pertussis. These dramatic results have persuaded many pediatricians to offer this vaccine to parents and grandparents of their patients.

One reason for the increased number of cases may be that several years ago we experienced a number of parents refusing to have their children vaccinated against childhood diseases, including pertussis.

These refusals were based on fears of the vaccines and components of the vaccines, such as aluminum or thimerosal. Thankfully, these fears have been proven to have been unfounded. But, unfortunately, once people stopped vaccinating their children, herd immunity was lost.

With increased knowledge through education, the number of vaccine refusers is beginning to decline and more people are again protected against infectious diseases such as pertussis. It is criminal that there are people living in the United States in 2012 suffering from a disease they did not have to have. Please don’t be one of them. Ensure that you and your loved ones do not get pertussis. Get vaccinated! Get vaccinated now!