vaccinated children catching pertussis/whooping cough?

[TranquilMind]

My middle DD had pertussis three years ago (and was vax). She coughed for months, poor thing. I took her to the doctor several times. Finally, she was coughing so hard she was throwing up.

 

A neighbor who works as a public health nurse heard our situation and brought over a whooping cough test kit to bring with us to the ped appt the next morning. The ped brushed me off and didn't want to test and thought my neighbor was just scaring me. I finally threatened to go to the ER with the kit if she didn't test.

 

Two days later, ped called and said, yes, it was pertussis.

 

What the heck is wrong with this doctor? You took your kids "several times" for the same awful cough, and it didn't occur to him that she might need antibiotics, which would nip it in the bud?

 

Let me guess...just curious...doctor is younger than 45 years old?

[TranquilMind]

If they are colonized, they may still sneeze, cough, etc. at other times. They could also have two illnesses simultaneously (have the b. pertussis bacteria but be asymptomatic, and then a 2nd illness that is causing coughing). Or if they are asthmatic and cough, etc. while they are colonized.

 

I think the evidence is that they are less likely to spread it, but fully vaccinated people are still known (and declared by the CDC) to be possible reservoirs for the disease.

 

eta: and the # of vaccinated, symptomatic people who probably have their diagnosis missed is very concerning, because those people are still out and about, working, attending school, etc. and possibly continuing to spread the disease.

 

One more comment:

 

With respect to the latter explanation it is now known that subclinical infections in adolescent and adult populations may play a major role in the persistent circulation of B. pertussis in highly vaccinated populations [3].

 

and

 

Immunity after natural infection and vaccine-induced immunity both wane after some years and reinfection of previously infected or of vaccinated individuals have both been observed [4]. Prior immunization, as well as older age, usually results in a milder clinical presentation of the infection, such that pertussis infections in adults are often not recognized or diagnosed. Nevertheless, asymptomatically infected persons can be a source of new infection and can pose a threat to children who are too young to be vaccinated, and are therefore susceptible to potentially severe pertussis infection [5].

 

from http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000291

 

Just wanted to add that they don't need to cough. If they are like a lot of people, touching their mouths and faces all day, they are still spreading their bacteria around that way by touching door handles, bank machines, gas handles at the station, etc.

[Dory]

My whole family came down with Whooping Cough when I was a teenager and we had all been vaccinated except the oldest as he was allergic to the shots. My doctor told me, when I asked about my own kids shots, that the pertussis immunization doesn't eliminate the chance of whooping cough, it just lessons the severity of it.