REMINDER FOR ADULT PERTUSSIS BOOSTER

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory disease that can cause serious illness in infants, children and adults. The disease usually starts with cold-like symptoms and maybe a mild cough or fever. After 1 to 2 weeks, severe coughing can begin. Unlike the common cold, pertussis can become a series of coughing fits that continues for weeks.

In infants, the cough can be minimal or not even there. Infants may have a symptom known as “apnea.” Apnea is a pause in the child’s breathing pattern. Pertussis is most dangerous for babies. About half of infants younger than 1 year of age who get the disease are hospitalized.

Pertussis can cause violent and rapid coughing, over and over, until the air is gone from the lungs and you are forced to inhale with a loud “whooping” sound. This extreme coughing can cause you to throw up and be very tired. The “whoop” is often not there and the infection is generally milder (less severe) in teens and adults, especially those who have been vaccinated.

Early symptoms can last for 1 to 2 weeks and usually include:

Runny nose

Low-grade fever (generally minimal throughout the course of the disease)

Mild, occasional cough

Apnea — a pause in breathing (in infants)

Because pertussis in its early stages appears to be nothing more than the common cold, it is often not suspected or diagnosed until the more severe symptoms appear. Infected people are most contagious up to about 2 weeks after the cough begins. Antibiotics may shorten the amount of time someone is contagious.

As the disease progresses, the traditional symptoms of pertussis appear and include:

Paroxysms (fits) of many, rapid coughs followed by a high-pitched “whoop”

Vomiting (throwing up)

Exhaustion (very tired) after coughing fits

The coughing fits can go on for up to 10 weeks or more. Recovery from pertussis can happen slowly. The cough becomes less severe and less common. However, coughing fits can return with other respiratory infections for many months after pertussis started.

The best way to protect against pertussis is IMMUNIZATION.

Adults:

• Adults age 19-64 years of age who have not previously received a dose of acellular pertussis vaccine during adolescence, are recommended to receive one single lifetime booster of Tdap (Adacel).

• The reason for the ministry’s expansion of the publicly funded Tdap vaccine program to adults is due to adults being a significant source of transmission of pertussis infection to infants who are not yet fully protected.

• This lifetime dose of Tdap will replace one of the Td booster doses given every 10 years, a client does not have to wait for ten years to pass following their previous Td booster to be eligible for the Tdap dose.

• In consultation with immunization experts, it is agreed that a minimum interval of four weeks between doses would be prudent.

• Adults who are considered a priority to receive Tdap include:

-Parents, grandparents or caregivers of newborns, infants and young children

-Other adult household contacts of newborns, infants and young children

-Healthcare workers

-Daycare workers

• Once an adult has received a dose of Tdap, he/she should continue to get a Td booster every 10 years throughout life, unless a dose is needed earlier due to an injury.

Contact Community Health for more information-613-575-2341 ext-3218.