Dr. Janet Shen has been a pediatrician at The Children’s Clinic in Anchorage for almost 30 years. And she said in the past few weeks, she’s seen more cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, than in the rest of her career.
“Mostly it’s children (or) teenagers who have had a cough for weeks,” Shen said. “They’re not necessarily very sick, but it’s been a cough that doesn’t go away. We are also seeing younger patients, toddlers, infants, who have coughs.”
Alaska is in the middle of what state epidemiologists are calling an epidemic of whooping cough. In the past few weeks, the total number of cases in the state has risen to 286, the most since the last epidemic, in 2012, when there were almost 400 cases.
Shen said, especially now that respiratory virus season is starting, it’s hard to tell the difference between whooping cough and a lingering virus, but she said many patients she’ has screened have tested positive for the pertussis bacteria.
“With pertussis, the earlier you test them, the better the prognosis is in terms of being able to offer treatment and, of course, to stem the transmission of the disease,” she said. “So I think we’re trying to err on the side of good public health and testing more people.”
She said some of her patients testing positive are vaccinated and some are unvaccinated. And she said she worries most about families with infants. About a third of babies under age 1 who get whooping cough will be hospitalized and 1% of hospitalized babies will die from it.
Joe McLaughlin, chief of the Alaska Section of Epidemiology, said vaccination is the best way to protect yourself and the people around you.
The unvaccinated population is at increased risk for pertussis, and when they get pertussis, they’re at increased risk for more severe disease. But, he said, 45% of the state’s cases are in vaccinated people.
McLaughlin said about two-thirds of reported cases in the state are kids under 15 years old. Sixteen people have been hospitalized, most of them babies, and one baby has died of pertussis during the statewide epidemic.
He said the public health aim is to protect those most vulnerable to pertussis: infants, pregnant women and people who are immunocompromised.
“We do that through trying to achieve herd immunity, and that’s where everybody who’s eligible for vaccination gets vaccinated: A, to protect themselves, but B, to protect their loved ones and their community,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said it’s important for adults to make sure they’re vaccinated against whooping cough — only about two-thirds of Alaskans are. And he said it’s especially important for pregnant women to get vaccinated during their third trimester.
“It helps protect the woman, the pregnant woman, but it also, more importantly, helps protect the newborn infant once they’re born, because you get that maternal transport of antibodies,” McLauglin said.
He said anyone with an infant should find out whether people in contact with the baby have any lingering cough symptoms. He said adults can get TDAP boosters, which includes vaccination against pertussis, every 10 years.
McLaughlin said people who are concerned they might have pertussis should talk with their health care provider, especially if they are high risk, connected to someone who is high risk or if they’ve been around someone who has tested positive.
He said cases of whooping cough are rising in Anchorage and in Southwest Alaska, but cases are declining statewide. The worst of the statewide epidemic may be over, he said.
Kathy Bell, a nurse and the director of healthcare services for the Anchorage School District, said 13 cases of pertussis have been reported in the district as of Sept. 17 at eight different schools. She said she’s happy that no single school has seen a huge outbreak.
“It’s spotty, like one school has one, one has two, another one has one,” Bell said.
But, she added, “there’s no way for me to know who’s reporting it and who isn’t reporting it.”
Bell said the Anchorage School District has ordered 200 TDAP vaccines, which vaccinate adults against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. They’ll be offering them for free at pop-up vaccination clinics which are open to staff and members of the community. The clinics will be held Sept. 23 and 25 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the district’s Education Center.
Tikahtnu Commons in Anchorage also has a pop-up free vaccine clinic. And across the state, vaccines are available for free or low cost through public health centers, pharmacies and healthcare providers.
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Rachel Cassandra covers health and wellness for Alaska Public Media. Reach her atrcassandra@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Rachel here.
