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Whooping Cough
Protecting Our Children From Pertussis
By Teri Brown
Just because your child had their immunizations doesn't mean they are protected as a teen. Will says immunity to pertussis wears off five to 10 years after the last childhood dose, leaving many teens unprotected against the disease. "Most children receive their last pertussis booster as they enter kindergarten at about 5 years of age," says Will. "Thus, by the time the child is 10 to 15 years old, the protective effect of the vaccine is considerably reduced."
Parents should also be aware of outbreaks across the nation. With outbreaks occurring nationwide in 2004 and 2005, it's not surprising that virtually all school nurses (97 percent) surveyed recently agree a whooping cough/pertussis booster is important for preparing middle and high school students for a healthy school year.
Dr. Jim Nordin, the head of HealthPartners Disease Surveillance System and HealthPartners Influenza Immunization program, has a good understanding of why the disease is so easily spread among this age group. "Quite frankly, I cannot think of a better way to sustain circulation of pertussis than to put susceptible kids in a room 30 at a time and let them cough on each other," says Dr. Nordin. "The other reason that we are seeing more in adolescents is that physicians are starting to think about it and look for it. When we started our study of pertussis in adolescents and adults in the late 1990s, most of the physicians I introduced to the study said that they hadn't seen a case of pertussis since medical school. At the end of the study, we documented that 25 percent of adolescents who present to the doctor with a cough for a week or more and who don't have pneumonia or sinusitis are infected with pertussis. I was able to go back to the physicians and say, 'You may not have diagnosed any pertussis since medical school, but you have definitely seen it.' I think that message is getting out."