Is Your Coughing Pertussis?

Health researchers have been trying to find the source of pertussis for many years. A new study may have identified the ‘whooping cough’ source.

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“Identifying infants’ transmission sources has challenged investigators. Frequently cited source studies could not identify pertussis sources for 40% to 50% of infants,” wrote C. Robinette Curtis, MD, MPH, of the immunization services division at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

To determine the risks associated with pertussis affliction among infants, the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) conducted structured interviews with the caregivers on whether respiratory symptoms or new cough was present within the household and prolonged (≥5 days) cough was present among household and visitor contacts.

Among all infants studied, 72 percent of the patients had one or more contacts with prolonged new "coughers" in their households.

The most frequent contacts included siblings (34%), mother (28%) and father (12%). Further, 24 of these infants (29%) had a greater risk for pertussis from a visitor with a prolonged cough, compared with control infants.

“In our study preceding national Tdap recommendations, U.S. infants ≤4 months of age during 2002-2005 whose mother had prolonged new cough (≥5 days) had 43-fold greater odds for pertussis; infants exposed to ≥1 non-mother contact with prolonged new cough in primary or secondary households had 20.1-fold greater odds for pertussis,” Dr. Curtis and colleagues wrote.

In the pre-vaccine era, whooping cough afflicted as many as 200,000 children each year in the U.S. and killed about 8,000.

Researchers crafted the original pertussis vaccine from dead pertussis bacteria that could not reproduce but retained many microbial proteins by which immune cells could recognize and attack B. pertussis before it caused disease.

Vaccines are available that can help prevent pertussis (whooping cough). Whooping cough is a respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis bacteria.

There are two kinds of vaccines used today to protect against whooping cough, both of which are combined with vaccines for other diseases:

• Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccines
• Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccines

Whooping cough vaccination is recommended for all babies, children, teens, and pregnant women. DTaP is given to children younger than 7 years old, while Tdap is given to older children and adults.

The whole-cell vaccine is about 78% effective while the acellular vaccine is 71–85% effective.

The current CDC vaccine price list can be found here.

Disclosure: This study was funded by the National Vaccine Program Office and the CDC. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.