Teens to be the target of pertussis boosters

More frequent outbreaks of the disease are leading to heightened awareness and are raising concerns in the public health community.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Oct. 6, 2003.

Washington -- Pertussis is believed by many to be a disease of young children. However, sometimes a lengthy bout of a severe, hacking cough in an adolescent or adult patient should trigger suspicion, too.

It's a critical awareness for primary care physicians because the consequences of missing a pertussis diagnosis could be serious, even fatal, for unvaccinated infants who come in contact with these individuals.

"We in peds tend to think about pertussis, but I don't think the adult folks do. I think there is probably a lot of underdiagnosis going on in family practitioner and internal medicine offices," said Margaret Rennels, MD, professor of pediatrics at the

Vaccine schedules call for the first shot of the DTaP vaccine series to be given to infants when they are 2 months old with the fifth, final dose generally administered by age 6 years.

Although adolescents and adults who develop pertussis are more likely to get a milder disease, the hazard is that they are the parents, uncles and aunts of infants and could transmit the disease.

"So although it doesn't mean too much to the adolescents and adults in terms of illness, in terms of public health they are important because they turn out to be the spreaders, and they bring it home," said William Schaffner, MD, chair of the Dept. of [...]