TAFP Pertussis resources

About Pertussis

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis and spreads from person-to person through contact with respiratory droplets. Because the disease is often considered to be a “childhood disease,” adults do not realize that they too can get whooping cough. While it is most detrimental in unvaccinated infants, older children and adults also get the disease as immunity wanes. Although the disease is not as severe in adults, it is very contagious and can be passed on to infants, who are most vulnerable population. Most cases of pertussis or whooping cough in infants are transmitted by adults close to them.

Pertussis is often misdiagnosed because it can be mistaken for a common cold with a cough, especially among adolescents. If an adolescent or an adult should present with a nagging cough that lasts more than two weeks and does not respond to the usual treatment, it could be pertussis. Read an article from the University of Michigan on whooping cough in teens.

Cocooning Initiative

TAFP, the Texas Department of State Health Services and other state organizations have come together to launch a statewide initiative, the Cocooning Project. The project promotes vaccinating all adults with the Tdap vaccine who will have close contact with an infant. To keep babies safe from pertussis, DSHS recommends vaccinating parents, grandparents, siblings and other close caregivers. By vaccinating the people around the baby, they provide an additional layer of protection, much like a cocoon protects a baby caterpillar as it becomes a butterfly.

Even after babies receive the first DTaP vaccine at two months, they are not fully protected until after their third or fourth dose. Pertussis causes about 10 to 20 deaths each year in the United States. In 2005, there were more than 2,000 pertussis cases in Texas and eight babies died from the disease. Every year since then, there have been one or two deaths in the state.

As a family physician, your patients rely on you to advise them on the care of their families. Children ages two months to seven years are vaccinated with the vaccine called DTaP, which contains the pertussis vaccine as well as diphtheria and tetanus vaccines. The Tdap vaccine is a combination vaccine for the same diseases and is available for older children and adults.

Encourage your patients to be up to date on all their vaccines including the pertussis booster. Below are links to patient education materials. As DSHS develops more resources with the Cocooning Project stakeholders, we will make these resources available on this page. You may also order the packet in advance by calling
(512) 329-8666 or tafp@tafp.org.

Resources

DSHS pertussis website
ImmunizeTexas.com
Pertussis fact sheet (English and Spanish)
Is it just a cough? Or is it pertussis/Whooping cough?