This school year, the Morgan Hill Unified School District has
required all students entering the 7th through 12th grades to
receive TDAP Boosters, a vaccination against pertussis.
This school year, the Morgan Hill Unified School District has required all students entering the 7th through 12th grades to receive TDAP Boosters, a vaccination against pertussis.
Administrators of Morgan Hill middle schools and high schools are adamant about receiving these vaccinations, for without them students will not be able to receive their school schedules, or for that matter, enroll. This caused many last minute doctor’s appointments and scrambling of papers. But what’s the big deal?
The first outbreak of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, was described some time in the 16th century.
However, Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium behind the infection, was not discovered until the early 20th century. Whooping cough is highly contagious, and has of late caused considerable grief in California.
Symptoms of pertussis include sneezing, runny nose, and of course, that infamous cough. Though the cough may start out as mild, it often increases in intensity as the disease settles in. These more violent coughs are accompanied by a sound described as “whooping,” hence the name “whooping cough.” While coughing, some patients may turn blue.
Although whooping cough is most dangerous to infants, teenagers and adults are also susceptible to the disease, though it is not as dangerous to them. However, if said adult or teenager are often in contact with small children, whooping cough is extremely contagious and will most likely be transmitted to the child.
In 2010, 9,467 cases of pertussis and 10 infant deaths were reported in California.
On June 18, 2010 a pertussis epidemic was officially declared in the state of California. Pertussis outbreaks generally occur within three to five years, which correlates with the statistics gathered about the last outbreak of pertussis.
The last pertussis epidemic occurred in 2005, which is consistent with the predicted three to five year range between outbreaks. In this particular instance, California reported eight deaths and about 3,000 cases.
But the vaccination for pertussis is effective. There was a time period in which whooping cough posed no notable danger. What happened? The vaccination was too successful. It almost completely wiped out whooping cough, which meant that for a long period of time no one was exposed to it.
Although pertussis does generally strike infants and young children, in the past year there has been a noted shift from the number of infected infants to the number of infected adults. Jennie Lavine, Aaron King, and Otter Bjornstad published an article for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, saying that the “incidence of whooping cough, unlike many other childhood diseases for which there is an efficacious vaccine, has been increasing over the past 20 years despite high levels of vaccine coverage. Its reemergence has been particularly noticeable among teenagers and adults.”
They continue on to offer the explanation that “low pathogen circulation in the current era … allows immunity to be lost before re-exposure occurs.”
Because there was that long period of time in which whooping cough was practically nonexistent, resistance to the disease lowered due to limited exposure. This is where the vaccine’s effectiveness declined.
When an outbreak of pertussis suddenly occurs, the population has by then lost resistance to the disease.
Therefore, students that received the pertussis vaccination as a young child are now susceptible to pertussis once again. And that is why we need our TDAP boosters.
Sabrina Werts is a junior at Ann Sobrato High School. In addition to writing, she enjoys piano and dance. we***********@***il.com.
