MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – If you won’t get vaccinated for yourself, do it for someone more vulnerable.
That’s the message public health officials are trying to get out as pertussis, more commonly called whooping cough, spreads across the country.
Pertussis is very contagious, and is spread by the coughing or sneezing of an infected person, said Pat Krehn, Public Health Muskegon County’s nursing supervisor in charge of immunizations. Though it’s most dangerous to infants, adults can also get it and spread it to children. The bacteria are found in all climates and among all ethnic groups, she said.
“So many of these cases we can look at, they start with the adult,” she said. “If you have a child get it, you’re going to have that child in a lot more danger.”
Nearly 18,000 cases of pertussis have been reported nationwide this year, more than twice the number in the same period in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nine children have died.
Washington and Wisconsin each have reported more than 3,000 cases, and high numbers have been seen in New York, Minnesota and Arizona. If cases continue to be reported at the current pace, the total for the year will be the highest since 1959, the Associated Press reported.
Public Health Muskegon County recorded five cases of pertussis in April through June, and three cases in the first three months of the year.
Cases of pertussis have fluctuated in Muskegon County, from a low of zero cases reported in 2002 to a high of 26 cases in 2010. The number of cases dropped to 11 in 2011.
If your cough is severe enough that you can’t lay down, that it causes you to vomit or that you begin turning blue, see a doctor immediately, Krehn said. If it’s pertussis, you’ll need antibiotics to prevent spreading the disease, and so will anyone who was close to you.
Linda, a Muskegon County woman who asked that her real name be concealed, said her middle-school aged daughter is just now beginning to recover from a cough that started about seven weeks ago. An urgent care doctor initially diagnosed her daughter with bronchitis, she said, but the cough didn’t get better with time. It got worse.
A nasal swab at the hospital confirmed pertussis, she said. Both Linda’s daughters had been vaccinated, but in one case it didn’t take, she said. Her other daughter didn’t get the infection.
“I still am a huge proponent of the vaccine,” she said. “In the long run a lot of other people avoided getting it” because they were vaccinated.
There were times when her daughter’s cough would cause spasms, Linda said, and other times when she would "cough until she would vomit."
“It’s really scary,” she said. “I can’t even imagine a little child or an older adult with it.”
Doctors gave her daughter, the family and their friends antibiotics to prevent spreading the disease, but there wasn’t much they could do to receive her symptoms. Over-the-counter cough syrup didn’t help, she said, though prescription-strength syrup with codeine in it and a steroid inhaler did somewhat.
“You just have to ride it out,” she said.
As of the end of June, 284 cases of pertussis were reported in Michigan, Krehn said, though the actual number of cases may be higher because a persistent cough can be misdiagnosed in people who don’t develop the characteristic “whoop” when they struggle to breath.
One of those cases, that of 3-month-old Francesca McNally of Franklin, was fatal. Her parents, Veronica and Sean McNally, started the Franny Strong Foundation to remember their daughter and to raise awareness of the need to vaccinate adults who come into contact with infants who haven’t yet received their full course of shots.
The total number of cases in Michigan is lower than in 2010 and 2011, Krehn said, but public health officials are concerned because the pace of diagnoses is picking up. In 2010, a particularly bad year for pertussis, 75 percent of the cases occurred in the latter half of the year, she said.
In the past, the pertussis vaccinations children receive in infancy were thought to provide lifelong protection, but the formula was changed because some children experienced allergic reactions. The new formula includes less of the bacteria than before, so immunity fades more quickly and booster shots are recommended.
People with insurance should visit their primary care doctor for the vaccine, Krehn said. Those without can get the shot at Public Health Muskegon County, 209 E. Apple, for $48.
Follow Megan Hart on Twitter @meganhartMC