Whooping Cough On the Rise

July 14 -- No longer a distant memory from the Great Depression ,whooping cough has made an alarming resurgence in the United States. Current infant vaccinations may no longer be enough, since immunity against the disease seems to wear off at adolescence, and the government is now considering a booster shot to help fight the often deadly illness.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection characterized by violent coughing fits, gasps for air that resemble "whoop" sounds, and vomiting. The symptoms can last for up to two months, and while an antibiotic is available to prevent spread of the disease, "it won't shorten the illness in the person already infected," says Trudy Murphy, a medical epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control (CDC).Complications from the disease can include pneumonia, hernia, and physical lung damage.

While incidence of the disease plunged following development of the vaccine in the '40's, numbers have been steadily increasing since the 1970's. A preliminary CDC count estimated over 11,000 pertussis cases in the past year, an increase of over two thousand from the previous year and the highest count recorded in thirty years.

Regional outbreaks have been reported across the country, from New Hampshire and Vermont to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Whooping cough is often fatal to young babies; while older patients generally recover, they are the major source of infection for vulnerable infants. According to an AP report, the disease has increased by 72 percent since 1990 in babies below 4 months of age.

Children are supposed to begin an immunization series against pertussis at 2, 4, and 6 months to confer protection, with two additional doses until their sixth birthdays. But Dr. Stephen Aronoff, Chairperson of the Department of Pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine, says that he sees "a large number" of children above 6 months with the disease, a sign of "decreased acceptance of the vaccine by parents."