Most Canadians suffer year after year with a bout of the common cold. Symptoms such as sniffling, coughing, aches and pains can be remedied within one week with lots of fluids and a cozy day in bed.
But did you know a nagging cough that persists past one week - and worsens - could be pertussis, commonly known as the whooping cough?1 Pertussis is highly infectious. In fact, cases of pertussis in teens and adults have increased from 9.6 per cent in 1995 to 31.3 per cent in 2004.2
What is pertussis?
Pertussis may at first appear like a bad cold, or even a case of bronchitis (inflammation of the airways due to infection or other environmental causes). However, pertussis is neither a bad cold nor bronchitis, but a very contagious bacterial infection: Bordetella pertussis. Pertussis - also known as the whooping cough - causes people to cough uncontrollably and sometimes make a "whoop" sound as they struggle to breathe between coughs. In some adult cases of pertussis, coughing may result in vomiting or even incontinence.
Like most infections, pertussis hits children the hardest. Kids may turn blue as they struggle to breathe after extended coughing. Bruised ribs and broken vessels in the eyes are also not uncommon from the force of the coughing.3
Babies and infants are the most at-risk group. According to Health Canada, one to three pertussis deaths occur each year in Canada, mostly in infants too young to have begun or completed their immunizations. Pertussis in infants can cause weight loss, breathing problems, choking spells, pneumonia, convulsions, and even brain damage. 4
Infants are at risk from those around them
Infants in Canada begin receiving a series of diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccinations at 2 months and beyond. But if a parent, sibling or caretaker is infected with pertussis, the baby is at high risk of infection in his or her first year of life.
Even if you and your family have had a previous whooping cough infection or have been vaccinated, the immunity wanes.5 Adults and teens who received the vaccine as infants may again be susceptible to the infection, and unwittingly pass it along to infants.
Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends pertussis booster immunization for adolescents and adults to indirectly protect infants, and The Canadian Paediatric Society endorses the NACI recommendation.
There are existing public health program to immunize teenagers in each province, however compliance is not 100 per cent. In Ontario, schools send a note home and put the onus on the family to take kids to their doctors for the vaccine. Other provinces administer the vaccine in school, but this also doesn't guarantee every teen will receive the vaccine.
All teenagers should be immunized along with their parents.
Adacel® can help
Adacel® is a vaccine for adults, adolescents and children between the ages of 4 and 64. Not only does it prevent against debilitating pertussis, Adacel® vaccinates against tetanus and diphtheria, two other diseases which require a booster vaccine every 10 years.
Ask your doctor for more information about Adacel®, or visit www.adacel.ca.
1"Infectious Disease: Whooping Cough"
Mayo Clinic
www.mayoclinic.com
2"Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Pertussis"
Public Health Agency of Canada
www.phac-aspc.gc.ca
3"Infectious Disease: Whooping Cough"
Mayo Clinic
www.mayoclinic.com
4"Whooping Cough (Pertussis)"
Health Canada
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca
5"Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Pertussis"
Public Health Agency of Canada
www.phac-aspc.gc.ca
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