Whooping cough, caused by infection with the Bordetella pertussis bacterium, causes symptoms such as severe, long-lasting coughing spells; vomiting because of the coughing; and wheezing. It's recommended that young children receive immunization against whooping cough, but even kids who are fully immunized may develop this infection, researchers from the University of Oxford in England say.
Blood testing for Bordetella pertussis infection was done on 172 5- to 16-year-old kids who visited the doctor for a cough lasting 2 weeks or more. The children and their parents reported how long the cough had lasted, whether other family members had been coughing, and whether the child had been:
- vomiting because of severe coughing spasms
- making a "whooping" sound when coughing
- wheezing or spitting up mucus
- immunized against whooping cough
Blood tests revealed that 37% of the kids had recent infection with Bordetella pertussis, even though 86% of those infected had been fully immunized. The classical symptom of whooping while coughing didn't always occur: Only half of the infected kids made the whooping sound. The majority of kids who tested positive for whooping cough had symptoms that persisted for 2 months; they also tended to have more than five coughing episodes a day and caused sleeping problems for their parents.
What This Means to You. In this study, a large percentage of kids with persistent cough who had been immunized for whooping cough still developed the infection later in childhood. This infection, which is typically treated with antibiotics, may be difficult to diagnose because of the lack of specific signs and symptoms. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends that kids between 11 and 18 years old receive a booster shot of the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine to prevent whooping cough infection. For more information about childhood vaccines and whether your child should have them, talk to your doctor.
Source: Anthony Harnden; Cameron Grant; Timothy Harrison; Rafael Perera; Angela B. Brueggemann; Richard Mayon-White; David Mant; British Medical Journal, July 22, 2006.
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: August 2006
