Originally
published May 10, 2012 at 11:24 AM | Page modified May 10, 2012 at
11:45 AM
Whooping
cough epidemic declared in Wash. state
Washington
state's worst outbreak of whooping cough in decades has prompted health
officials to declare an epidemic, seek help from federal experts and
urge residents to get vaccinated amid worry that cases of the highly
contagious disease could spike much higher.
By DONNA
GORDON BLANKINSHIP
Associated
Press
SEATTLE —
Washington
state's worst outbreak of whooping cough in decades has prompted health
officials to declare an epidemic, seek help from federal experts and
urge residents to get vaccinated amid worry that cases of the highly
contagious disease could spike much higher.
It's
the first state to declare a whooping cough, or pertussis, epidemic
since 2010, when California had more than 9,000 cases, including 10
deaths. Washington has had 10 times the cases reported in 2011, and so
has Wisconsin with nearly 2,000 cases this year, though that state has
not declared an epidemic.
California
responded to its crisis two years ago with a public information
campaign, readily available vaccines and a new law requiring a booster
shot for middle- and high-school students. Doctors were urged to spot
whooping cough early, send infected babies to the hospital and promptly
treat those diagnosed. In 2011, the number of cases there dropped
significantly.
In
Washington, about 1,280 cases have been reported in 2012, and officials
believe the state could see as many as 3,000 cases by year's end.
Health Secretary Mary Selecky declared the epidemic April 3, and since
then officials have bought up the vaccine and made it available for
free for people who don't have insurance.
State
officials have asked hospitals to vaccinate every adult who goes home
with a new baby, and urged businesses to encourage their employees to
get the adult booster shot. Washington already requires a booster shot
for middle- and high-school students.
Last
week, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced the state is putting $90,000 into a
public awareness campaign and diverting some federal money to pay for
27,000 doses of vaccine. The state has also asked the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to send a special team of investigators
and an epidemiologist to the Washington.
State
epidemic declarations are up to the states; there are no federal
regulations for such decisions. Selecky said this is the first time in
14 years she has declared a state epidemic, but felt she needed to take
action to stop the disease from spreading further.
"When
we've looked historically, we've seen nothing like this," she said.
"We're taking this very seriously."
Adults
and teens need booster shots so they don't give pertussis to the babies
in their lives, said CDC spokeswoman Alison Patti
"We
want to create a cocoon of protection around them," she said. "We're
really worried about keeping babies safe."
Pertussis
is known as whooping cough because of the "whooping" sound people often
make while gasping for air after a coughing fit. A highly contagious
bacterial disease, it starts off like a cold but leads to severe
coughing that can last for weeks. In rare cases, it can be fatal.
Until
routine child vaccination became widespread in the 1940s, pertussis
caused thousands of fatalities each year in the United States. While
deaths are uncommon today, they still occur: In recent weeks, infants
in New Mexico and Idaho have died from the disease.
Because
the adult booster for pertussis - called Tdap for tetanus, diphtheria
and acellular pertussis - has only been available since 2005, fewer
than one in 10 adults have gotten the shot and most don't even know
they need it. The numbers are better for teens: about 70 percent have
received a booster shot. Most people do not find out they even need a
booster until they go to the doctor for a tetanus shot, Patti said.
Patti
emphasized that pertussis isn't spreading because of an anti-vaccine
movement. Among possible reasons for the recent spike are that
diagnoses in teens and adults are getting better and doctors are doing
a better job with reporting, she added
Health
officials say the disease tends to return in three-to-five-year cycles.
"The
incidents tend to oscillate," said Herbert Hethcote, a professor
emeritus from the University of Iowa who is a specialist in
mathematical modeling of the spread of infectious diseases,
He
said the growth of pertussis in Washington state has followed a
pattern: As the population ages, the immunity level goes down because
the vaccine is wearing off. The disease spreads and the cases grow
until more people get the vaccine and the numbers go down again.
Hethcote
said his daughter had whooping cough as an adult during the last spike
of cases in Washington, four or five years ago. She coughed so hard she
broke a rib and was sick for more than a month, he recalls. She never
found out how she caught it but the experience raised awareness in his
family that pertussis is not just a children's disease.