A few days ago, I went to the doctor for a yearly physical exam. I call it preventative maintenance. This is a ritual that I’ve started trying to maintain over the last few years as I’ve come to view my health as something that should be managed. It gives me some time to just talk with my doctor, as well as providing baseline information in case serious health problems arise later. Among other things, he suggested I take the whooping cough vaccine for adults.
Photo Credit Richard Faulder
The Whooping Cough Vaccine For Adults
In looking through my records, it had been quite a while since my last tetanus shot, and he suggested we do a TDaP vaccine. Of course I asked why, and he said its a combination vaccine that includes tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). He went on to say there has been a steady increase in the incidence of adult whooping cough in recent years.
I went looking for information. Whooping cough is a disease I normally thought of as having occurred prior to the mid-20th century, and being a leading cause of death among infants and children at that time. Turns out, with the advent of the pertussis vaccine in the 1940′s, the occurrence of the disease declined steadily in the U.S. until reaching a record low of 1,000 reported cases in 1976. Since that time, it has been making a sporadic comeback, and 25,000 cases were reported in 2004. You can read more about the history of the disease in the U.S. at the CNN Health website here. Outbreaks have occassionally occurred in the U.S. Examples, such as the one in 2004, and again as recently as 2007 attest to this fact.
The rising occurrence of the disease has prompted the CDC to change its recommendations for pertussis vaccination to the TDaP combination for adults between the age of 19-64, and for adults who have close contact with infants under the age of 12 months. You can read more about the CDC’s recommendation at their website here.
Needless to say, I got the vaccine. Of course they always tell you it will just be a small stick, and they warned me that it would get sore. Curiously enough, the doctor called me the next day to make sure it was sore. He said if it wasn’t sore, that meant it didn’t take. I don’t know if he was kidding or not…
I have read a few articles about whooping cough lately. It’s touched on in all the baby books and magazines, since it’s making a comeback…funny that you should blog on it just now! I did not realize it was now recommended for adults to get the vaccine, too. I’ll have to ask my dr. about it.