There have been 52 confirmed cases of pertussis so far in 2015 in West Virginia, up markedly from 2014, which saw only 18, and 2013, which had 19, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
The DHHR has confirmed five outbreaks of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, so far this year, including one in October that still has active cases. The highly contagious respiratory disease, which causes intense coughing, fever, vomiting and exhaustion, tends to see outbreaks in three to five year cycles - there were 168 reported cases in 2010, 102 in 2011 and 85 cases in 2012, according to Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer and commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health.
The majority of this year's 52 cases were among children under 14 years old, including about 15 in infants under the age of 1, Gupta said. Because the Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis) vaccine cannot be administered to babies under six months old, newborns are highly susceptible to the disease, Gupta said. While West Virginia has very high rates of vaccination among its school-aged children, more than 15 percent of West Virginia toddlers have not received their Measles, Mumps and Rubella shot, a good marker for how many of the state's toddlers are vaccinated. Gupta said those poor rates were the reasoning behind state Senate Bill 286, passed last session, which requires children entering a "state-regulated childcare center" to receive the same vaccines as children entering school.
"This goes back to legislation that was recently passed last session, the idea that we include day care centers in the vaccination requirement," Gupta said. "The idea was to work on the poor vaccination rates we have for toddlers."
Another 18 of the cases were in children between the ages of 1 and 14, Gupta said. The rest were distributed evenly among those older than 14, although older adults should consider receiving a new dose of Tdap in order to boost herd immunity and protect younger children they may interact with, Gupta said.
"It goes back to the fact that no vaccine is perfect, and our rates of vaccination aren't 100 percent," he said. "You will always have a gap; the important thing to remember is that good immunization policy is to ensure that you minimize the gap of unvaccinated children, because it impacts those vulnerable kids who cannot mount a response, or those who have special needs that prevent them from receiving vaccines."
Gupta said that recent studies have shown that, despite the idea that protection from the Tdap vaccination lasts a lifetime, the vaccine's efficacy lessens over time. The DHHR recommends that adults who are getting a tetanus shot, which are recommended every decade, ask their doctor to replace the shot with a Tdap vaccine to boost their immunity. Gupta declined to say where in the state the most recent outbreak had occurred. The DHHR sent out a health advisory to health-care providers across the state cautioning them to be aware and to look for symptoms of pertussis, and to coordinate with their local health department in testing for suspected cases of whooping cough.
"The reason this health alert has been distributed statewide is that, regardless of where these outbreaks are, it's important to be vigilant," he said.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.