Whooping Cough epidemic???

A friend of mine works at a pharmacy inside a hospital. This is in central Massachusetts, USA. The other day my friend made the casual observation to me that lots of people are coming into the hospital with whooping cough.

Today my friend told me that there is a "whooping cough epidemic" and that tomorrow some powers-that-be have decided to treat all of the hospital employees for it, presumable with oral antibiotics.

Outside of what my friend has told me, this is the first I have heard of this.

Anyone else??

To anwser your question, I've never herd of it. But I googled in the term and got this site, which states that its a real illness, also known as Pertussis.

www.kidshealth.org...
www.metrokc.gov...

Check em' out.

[edit on 28-9-2006 by sympthons_WDF]

I was getting my Typhoid fever and Hep A booster for an upcoming trip and the nurse was telling me about how many adults who were not immunized against Whooping Cough were now coming down with it because there was a gap in immunizations. So yes, apparently it's becoming a problem.

Originally posted by parrhesia
how many adults who were not immunized against Whooping Cough were now coming down with it because there was a gap in immunizations. So yes, apparently it's becoming a problem.

Actually, one of the articles above says that it's actually that by adulthood the shot has basically worn off and they are now recommending a booster between 11 & 18 years old.

Frightening - this would basically mean no adults still have their immunity.

interesting...so who is spreading the whooping cough.
Hypothetically everyone is vaccinated, then the vaccination wears off, who gave it...dont say a person...where did the person get it?

peace

Dalen

does your friend, by any chance, have know if only adults are affected and if so, how old the youngest known patient is? perhaps, it just looks like whooping cough, but is something different, so the vaccine doesn't matter. just an idea.

There are warnings down here in Ohio that Pertussis (the medical term for "Whooping Cough") is spreading at an alarming rate. We have received notifications from our daughter's school and daycare about the pandemic. The memo urged all adults to be re-vaccinated as evidence exists that by age 16 to 18 the vaccination may have worn off a vast majority of those who were vaccinated as children - as a control to the spread of the illness. My neighbor, an ER doctor, told me recently that they feared it could reach epidemic proprotions over the winter months as greater concentrations of people shared inddor environments leading to a more rapid spread of the illness. He seemed genuinely concerned and urged my wife and I to get re-vaccinated ASAP.

It's a cough, people. It's not life threatening or anything. Why do you guys sound so worried? Haven't you ever had a bad cough before?

I got chronnic lung infections three time before. A "Wooping cough" doesn't scare me. Anyway, over immuniziation is a bad thing. Ever here of what happened with penicillon?

[edit on 29-9-2006 by halfmask]

Originally posted by closettrekkie
It's a cough, people. It's not life threatening or anything. Why do you guys sound so worried? Haven't you ever had a bad cough before?

Did you look at the links above?

Link

Before a vaccine was available, pertussis killed 5,000 to 10,000 people in the United States each year. Now, the pertussis vaccine has reduced the annual number of deaths to less than 30.

I don't know, but if it's evolved over this period of time (doesn't everything?), and our immunity has diminished, I would think I want to keep an eye on this one, especially since we have a lot more unexplained autoimmune disorders going on these days than back when the the vaccine hit the scene.

Pertussis is only dangerous to the very young, the very old, and individuals who may already have compromised lungs.

A co-worker of mine actually exposed our whole office last year. Real thoughtful.
Almost our whole office had to go on the antimicrobial erythromycin. But that's because we had people with heart problems, newborns, surgeries, etc.

If you're healthy to begin with, it's just a bad cough. Nothing more.

My point was that I think there are a lot more unhealthy people these days than before the vaccine was invented. My concern would be that there is more of a concentration of individuals that would be affected now if turns epidemic.

Just to add something here too...

Originally posted by Relentless

Before a vaccine was available, pertussis killed 5,000 to 10,000 people in the United States each year. Now, the pertussis vaccine has reduced the annual number of deaths to less than 30.

My understanding is that this vaccine is for babies only.
An adult vaccine is in development and is close to being openly available.

Can someone confirm this?
Is there a doctor in the house?

She had all of her immunizations. She was quarantined for three days in hospital (she's asthmatic as well and was one sick little kid).

It got left untreated in spite of being taken to the doctor...no swab done until a week later when she became REALLY ill and had spread the virus to another child (also immunized)...

The doctor was absolutely amazed.

Must have beena bad batch she got...the other kid was quarantined for 6 days (also an asthmatic - so perhaps there's an issue of suseptibility there....)

Anyway very glad that after three days the fever was gone and she was getting back to normal. It was pretty grim.

Wow this is wierd I live in NY, I've been having this random hard coughs that I thought might be attributed to a cold but, hearing this it seems the whole country is having the same problem. I am definetly going to follow this story, does anyone know a the reason for this widespread problem?

at varying stages.

the first at 2 months, then at 4 months again at 6 months

It's a combo vaccine which includes Diptheria and tetanus as well as the pertussis.

The schedule continues with more vaccines at 15- 18 months.

There are adult vaccines available as well, and YES pertussis cases are growing in the US and in canada as well....check out the CDC


Here's a great article on it from NurseWeek:Unwelcome Return

See also Pertussis.com Latest Pertussis News

Originally posted by closettrekkie
It's a cough, people. It's not life threatening or anything. Why do you guys sound so worried? Haven't you ever had a bad cough before?

If it gets hold of you it can be fatal. Ive seen more kids than I care to remember die of this in the ICU.

Originally posted by justgeneric
She had all of her immunizations. She was quarantined for three days in hospital (she's asthmatic as well and was one sick little kid).

It got left untreated in spite of being taken to the doctor...no swab done until a week later when she became REALLY ill and had spread the virus to another child (also immunized)...

The doctor was absolutely amazed.

yow, that's harsh but not entirely unexpected. a bad batch? how convenient that mainstream science always has an answer in store, for a while at least.

btw, did you know that 19th century textbooks depicted little babies inside sperm cells?? they were of course (you can bet your hat on it) just as right(ous) as our era's peers and criticism was probably just as backwards, stupid and reactionary.

i think i elaborated my thoughts on the subject a few months ago: click me

[edit on 30-9-2006 by Long Lance]

controlled exposure is proven to boost the immune system against the known and UNMUTATED virus'. However it is still possible to be afflicted with the full illness.

Factors like low immuno responses, asthma, CF, smoking, organ diseases....etc etc all contribute to the increases in outbreaks.

We're not as healthy as we'd like to think and I believe the backdoor is open for numerous nasty virus' and bacterias...immunizations help to an extent but they are not failproof.

You know I had to argue with the doctor on that day to do the swab...he assumed that it could ONLY be at worst...bronchitis. Yeah with a fever of 105 at one point...bronchitis?

Immunizations are assumed by even doctors to be the catch all...clearly they are not.

I doubt my daughter's case was as rare as all that...the Canadian CIDC was notified and that was how they located the other kid......they were coughing and had a bit of fever...6 days quarantine for that kid.

Originally posted by justgeneric
controlled exposure is proven to boost...

to clarify: direct exposure is basically a desperate way of inoculation, in the other thread's context, it was clear that the motivation of parents who did it was their fear of commercial vaccines. that's not to say that 'measles parties' are the way to go, of course.


on reliability: it's hard to trust anyone anymore. we know of the vague concept of 'herd immunity'. IF this is more than just an urban legend and mainstream doctors really try to sell the idea, then they're, imho, admitting that vaccines don't work as reliably as advertised. this may very well be the case and it begs the question why these people believe they can feed us # and don't go ahead and tell us what they know,

because if a sizable portion of the population starts thinking about it, i'd wager they'll be chased out of town - if they're lucky.