Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, April 3, 2012
Health Washington Declares Whooping Cough Epidemic
Posted by Goldy on Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 12:40 PM
State health officials have already recorded 640 cases of whooping cough (technically, pertussis) in 23 Washington counties as of March 31, compared to 94 cases during the same period last year. That puts the state on track for the most cases since 1942, prompting Secretary of Health Mary Selecky to declare a whooping cough "epidemic."
"I have not used that word very often in my 14 years as secretary," cautioned Selecky during a late-morning conference call. Whooping cough outbreaks tend to come in three to five year cycles, but Selecky says that "this year's peak is higher than anything we've seen." And, she added, this is "only the tip of the iceberg."
With symptoms that often mimic those of a bad cold, most infected adults never seek treatment, meaning only 10 to 12 percent of cases are ever reported, according to Selecky. But those infected remain very contagious for the first three weeks of the disease, and whooping cough can be very serious in infants, even deadly. (Infants can't be immunized until they are four to six weeks old, so they are doubly vulnerable.) So far this year 13 Washington infants have been hospitalized with the disease, though none have died.
So what does Selecky want us to do? Get the fuck vaccinated! (My phrasing, not hers.) Adults and teens need regular booster shots; if it's been 10 years since your last "Tdap" vaccine, you're due. And all children must get a series of five "DTaP" shots before the age of seven to be fully vaccinated.
Now I understand that there are some stupid fucking anti-vaccine hippies out there, convinced that vaccinations are a government plot to turn their kids into special ed students, and under normal circumstances I suppose that correcting these misconceptions would call for persistent public outreach and gentle persuasion. But these aren't normal times. We're in the midst of an epidemic. So get yourself and your kids vaccinated before you kill a baby.
2
The adult pertussis vaccine has been around since 2005. It's bundled with tetanus and diphtheria - so if you haven't had a tetanus shot since 2005, you're not immunized against pertussis.
Pertussis can be mild for some people but it can also be one violent motherfucker of an illness. You do not want to get it, and you do not want anyone you know to get it.
TDaP!!!
Pertussis can be mild for some people but it can also be one violent motherfucker of an illness. You do not want to get it, and you do not want anyone you know to get it.
TDaP!!!
4
I hate to agree with Goldy. Like, a lot. But seriously; get yourself and your goddamn kids vaccinated before you kill someone else's infant.
5
Stupid goddamn softheaded conspiracy-theory "mommy instincts" ignorance-loving Jenny McCarthy zombie new-agey quackadoodle woo-woo motherfuckers.
Andrew Wakefield lost his license and his fraudulent research was withdrawn by the journal that ran it. Vaccine fears don't have a leg to stand on, medically or scientifically; claims of mercury, system overload, and nonspecific "toxins" have all been extensively rebutted not just by medical experts, but by actual research.
It's time to grow up and take your medicine like adults.
Andrew Wakefield lost his license and his fraudulent research was withdrawn by the journal that ran it. Vaccine fears don't have a leg to stand on, medically or scientifically; claims of mercury, system overload, and nonspecific "toxins" have all been extensively rebutted not just by medical experts, but by actual research.
It's time to grow up and take your medicine like adults.
6
@2 wait a minute, i had a tetanus shot 3 years ago and they mentioned nothing about other vaccinations being part of the shot! Shouldn't they have to tell you that?
7
Well said. This is one of those issues that do not have two sides. Everyone needs to get vaccinated and get their kids vaccinated.
8
@6 They might have given you the tetanus alone - that still exists, and if you asked for "tetanus" rather than "dtap" you could have just been given the tetanus shot.
10
My family wasn't aware that the immunization could wear off, and I came down with it during high school (2005). Not fun, especially if during a coughing fit you jam the edge of your desk between your ribs and bruise the interstitial muscle. It was an unpleasant couple of months.
12
I got my booster as soon as I found out I was pregnant last year, and I made my husband and any family members who might come in contact with the baby get theirs too. Of course, I'm a microbiologist, and my doctor was research faculty at UW, so together we were both very up-to-date with vaccine recommendations.
If your doctor doesn't routinely talk to you about vaccinations, you should remind him/her at your next visit. I've known at least one person who got pertussis as an adult and she was out-of-work sick for almost six weeks. That costs a lot more than a 1-in-a-million chance of an adverse reaction (they do exist, but most of them aren't nearly as scary as Jenny McCarthy would have you believe).
If your doctor doesn't routinely talk to you about vaccinations, you should remind him/her at your next visit. I've known at least one person who got pertussis as an adult and she was out-of-work sick for almost six weeks. That costs a lot more than a 1-in-a-million chance of an adverse reaction (they do exist, but most of them aren't nearly as scary as Jenny McCarthy would have you believe).
13
If I remember correctly, the Chinese call it (the adult pertussis) "the hundred-days cough", which is about as long as it takes to get over it. Definitely check your vaccinations.
16
@6 - I don't know, you should check with your doctor's office to see if you got just the tetanus or if you got TDaP. It seems like your doctor should have to tell you what immunizations you're getting, but I have no idea about that, really.
I also had no idea that there even was an adult pertussis immunization until I came down with a bad case of pertussis a couple years ago. I ended up breaking three ribs from all the coughing. It was extremely unpleasant.
An awful illness. It's heartbreaking to hear about babies getting it.
I also had no idea that there even was an adult pertussis immunization until I came down with a bad case of pertussis a couple years ago. I ended up breaking three ribs from all the coughing. It was extremely unpleasant.
An awful illness. It's heartbreaking to hear about babies getting it.
17
Anyone else impressed the troll was able somehow tie abortion into this? I mean, it would've been more impressive he did it the Seahawk uniform thread, but still.
18
@6. They aren't always bundled together. You may have only gotten the tetanus shot.
And, really people, get your shots. My kid can't have a pertussis vaccination because his immune system is suppressed and the vaccine is too risky. However, he sure can contract pertussis from someone who's spreading it around. Do you want to be the person responsible for giving pertussis to my fragile, disabled kid with a liver transplant? No. You do not. You would feel like a jerk.
And, really people, get your shots. My kid can't have a pertussis vaccination because his immune system is suppressed and the vaccine is too risky. However, he sure can contract pertussis from someone who's spreading it around. Do you want to be the person responsible for giving pertussis to my fragile, disabled kid with a liver transplant? No. You do not. You would feel like a jerk.
20
Seriously, I had several family members with it a few years ago in Bellevue, (had been DPT vaccinated, but not recently enough). Everyone recovered, but it was NASTY. And scary. Agree with balderdash @5. FUCK THE Stupid goddamn softheaded conspiracy-theory "mommy instincts" ignorance-loving Jenny McCarthy zombie new-agey quackadoodle woo-woo motherfuckers.
21
But ... if people get vaccinated, they might have to actually admit Science is Good and listening to crazy ladies is bad ...
22
Goldy, could you stop being simplistic on this, please? The evidence suggests the vaccine may wear off within 3 years. This means that people may have gotten themselves and their kids vaccinated and still end up getting it and spreading it.
I got whooping cough a couple of years ago, in spite of having been vaccinated, and it was terrible. I'm pro-vaccine and pro-science. We also have to recognize that vaccines are not perfect and some work rather less well than we would wish. Let's stop making this a "moron versus science" conversation, OK?
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/ea…
I got whooping cough a couple of years ago, in spite of having been vaccinated, and it was terrible. I'm pro-vaccine and pro-science. We also have to recognize that vaccines are not perfect and some work rather less well than we would wish. Let's stop making this a "moron versus science" conversation, OK?
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/ea…
23
What I would like to know is, what's the difference between mothers and fathers who let their children suffer through chicken pox, measles and pertussis, and parents who beat them?
The relative length of suffering, I guess.
The relative length of suffering, I guess.
24
@23, I'm gonna say that most parents who beat their kids - there are some particularly psychopathic exceptions, but most - probably do it in anger and feel appropriately ashamed. The ones who make their kids sick, on the other hand, generally seem pretty goddamn smug about it.
25
@23
I think it's more like the difference between letting your children suffer through a disease, and standing back while your children get mauled by a bear. In both cases the parents can sit back and say "Well, it's not MY fault."
Besides, we all know bear traps cause SCOLIOSIS and ASPERGERS.
I think it's more like the difference between letting your children suffer through a disease, and standing back while your children get mauled by a bear. In both cases the parents can sit back and say "Well, it's not MY fault."
Besides, we all know bear traps cause SCOLIOSIS and ASPERGERS.
26
@22 That is an argument for more frequent booster shots. Goldy was targetting the vile sacks of shit who refuse to get themselves or their kids vaccinated and encourage others to skip their shots as well.
Anyone know if WA requires the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools and daycares during the epidemic? If not, they ought to; we should limit the ability of the idiots to harm others... and make stupidity difficult and expensive.
Anyone know if WA requires the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools and daycares during the epidemic? If not, they ought to; we should limit the ability of the idiots to harm others... and make stupidity difficult and expensive.
28
@22, thank you.
I would like to know how many, of the 640 cases, have already been vaccinated against pertussis.
I would like to know how many, of the 640 cases, have already been vaccinated against pertussis.
29
@22 It is that simple. Yes, vaccines wear off, and yes, they don't work 100%. But for a disease to spread it takes a certain level of the population not to be immune. If everyone got vaccinated properly there would not be enough people not immune for this to spread. http://www.npr.org/2011/09/13/140432995/…
30
Maybe if most of us could afford the visit, or wouldn't get in hot water for having to take a day off for it (let alone afford to not get paid for the day they're gone), we might. Sadly, this is America, where most people's healthcare amounts to repeatedly rolling the dice.
32
I think a lot more people would get vaccinated if we did some consciousness-raising about Diptheria, which is the third part of that vaccine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphtheria
I looked it up while being paranoid about an exposure to Whooping Cough last spring (like so many others, I'd let my tetanus shot expire due to poor insurance coverage...fixed now, but it was terrifying for a bit), and Diptheria is totally horrible sounding!
Maybe people aren't scared of tetanus because you can avoid getting cuts, and whooping cough sounds like a bad cold, but diptheria is scary!
I looked it up while being paranoid about an exposure to Whooping Cough last spring (like so many others, I'd let my tetanus shot expire due to poor insurance coverage...fixed now, but it was terrifying for a bit), and Diptheria is totally horrible sounding!
Maybe people aren't scared of tetanus because you can avoid getting cuts, and whooping cough sounds like a bad cold, but diptheria is scary!
33
@22 - I've read that the adult vaccine can last anywhere between 3 and 20 years. I've also read that kids who HAVE been immunized have come down with pertussis. I've also read that getting the shot can help lessen the severity of the illness even if it doesn't prevent it entirely. Personally, I plan to get my shots every 5 years.
@30 - you should be able to find a local clinic that can provide low-cost (and maybe even drop-in) vaccinations... county health department, maybe? I estimated that the cost of my appointments, prescriptions, x-rays, bone scan, blood tests, and lost work when I came down with whooping cough was well over $3500 (not to mention the fucking misery I was in, which you can't put a price on). Luckily I had health insurance and sick leave from work, but I still ended up with a bunch of unwelcome medical bills. If I'd been vaccinated I either wouldn't have gotten sick or I would have just had a lingering, slightly annoying cough.
@30 - you should be able to find a local clinic that can provide low-cost (and maybe even drop-in) vaccinations... county health department, maybe? I estimated that the cost of my appointments, prescriptions, x-rays, bone scan, blood tests, and lost work when I came down with whooping cough was well over $3500 (not to mention the fucking misery I was in, which you can't put a price on). Luckily I had health insurance and sick leave from work, but I still ended up with a bunch of unwelcome medical bills. If I'd been vaccinated I either wouldn't have gotten sick or I would have just had a lingering, slightly annoying cough.
34
@32 I think we're not getting vaccinated because vaccines have worked so well and we've become complacent - we don't need to worry about awful diseases like smallpox and polio, and whooping cough didn't seem to be anything we needed to worry about either. And I agree - diphtheria doesn't look fun.
35
Flower-sniffin'-kitty-pettin'-baby-kissin'-corporate-rock-whores-ASS-WHUPPIN' @5! YESSSS!
Re: 30, check with your local county health department about available vaccines (including seasonal flu). They're usually available at $5-10 without means-testing, and many offices have evening or Saturday hours.
Re: 30, check with your local county health department about available vaccines (including seasonal flu). They're usually available at $5-10 without means-testing, and many offices have evening or Saturday hours.
37
@32: prior to routine diptheria vaccination, that disease alone was the reason why 20% of all children died before age 5. We're talking not even 100 years ago.
When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, so did their public health system (which relied almost exclusively on preventative medicine because it was the cheapesr), diptheria vaccination plummeted, and there were outbreaks and deaths in children and adults every winter for years.
When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, so did their public health system (which relied almost exclusively on preventative medicine because it was the cheapesr), diptheria vaccination plummeted, and there were outbreaks and deaths in children and adults every winter for years.
39
Has Kimya Dawson vaccinated her fucking kid yet? Next time one of the Stranger's writers is over giving Kimya Dawson a blowjob they could ask her, Kimya, why don't you vaccinate your fucking kid? Are you nuts?
40
Let's make this easy. If you vaccinated your family and your children for this awful disease, full sympathies if any of you fall ill. If you're an ant-vaxxer, stand for your principles. If you or your children are the vector who infects someone whose vaccine failed or who are too immunocompromised to get it, you pay their full medical bills, including their funeral costs if they die.
It's not hard to trace whooping cough infections from point to point. Apply a bit of personal respsonsiblity - don't antigovernment paranoics love that?
Unless this is all just a cynical numbers con where a minority has minimized their risk by freeloading on herd immunity. In which case, game over: you suffer for the people you sicken.
It's not hard to trace whooping cough infections from point to point. Apply a bit of personal respsonsiblity - don't antigovernment paranoics love that?
Unless this is all just a cynical numbers con where a minority has minimized their risk by freeloading on herd immunity. In which case, game over: you suffer for the people you sicken.
42
Here is the deal: The most effective component of the pertussis vaccine works against the toxins produced by the pertussis bacteria, it does not kill the actual pertussis bacterial cells themselves. What this means is that ANY person, vaccinated or not, can contract pertussis - that person then experiences the initial approx 2 weeks of pertussis infection, runny nose, etc (average cold-like symptoms). At this point, the pertussis bacteria have produced sufficient toxins in the lungs to cause the horrible "whooping" cough - unvaccinated people will suffer greatly, vaccinated people will not (because their immune systems will have been stimulated by the vaccine to produce antibodies against the toxin). The rub is that both vaccinated AND unvaccinated folks get the disease and spread it around during the couple weeks before the cough sets in. So the vaccine offers only individual protection against the bad cough, it does not in fact prevent the spreading of the disease throughout the population. ANYONE can catch and spread pertussis, not just unvaccinated people. If you want to not kill a baby WASH YOUR HANDS before you touch it and don't kiss it on the mouth or hands.
43
Thanks, 42! I'd never seen an explanation for how this vaccine works. I think pertussis/vaccination awareness has increased a lot in the last couple years and will hopefully continue to increase.
44
I've seen the pertussis booster available in mall kiosks and at Safeway - it's a fairly easy vaccine to get.
45
Hello,
My name is Kennetha Scott and my niece Chelsey Charles lost her daughter Kaliah to Pertussis in August at the beginning of this epidemic in Washington State. We have been raising awareness and money to send out a PSA, which we recorded with Secretary of Health, Mary Selecky and began airing on April 2nd, and also a postcard as a public health notice to all residents and businesses in our state. We have nearly enough to send to our county of 305,000 addresses, but need help with the rest of the the state!
We are at 1940's level of Pertussis right now. The root cause of this is that most adults do not know their childhood vaccine wears off. That is why we are doing this starting in Washington and then moving nationally. The CDC recommendations have never been shared directly with the public, only providers and schools. Over 90% of adults nationally are walking around thinking they are protected, but they are not, and that is why there are so many epidemics. When they made the childhood vaccine safer, it reduced it's longevity, but they never ran a big campaign to share that with adult citizens, only providers and people that are around babies.
10 years later, and still, no one knows. It took 10 babies dying in California in 2010 for them to find out, now we have an epidemic. We have had to push the state and county into action because they do not have funding to share this message. In the United States there is no entity responsible for sharing CDC or epidemic information directly with the public. It has traditionally been shared with doctors, but nowadays we don't see doctors the way we used to. They don't keep track of everything you are supposed to do, they barely even talk to you. 50 million people don't even get to go to one because they have no insurance.
In the event of an epidemic or contagious disease outbreak, or even a CDC recommendation that a major change has taken place, such as the reduced length of time the childhood vaccine wears off, a direct mail message should go out to everyone, not just providers, every business and household! If it is a national message, then the nation needs to get it!
I have attached the draft of our card and the PSA recorded last week. We have gone everywhere for help but keep getting the same message, "We don't do that", "We don't have money to help"
Who's responsibility is it to actually share this message with the public?
Is there anything you can do to help us?
Here is our blog:
http://kennethaskorner.weebly.com/
Here is the latest article:
http://www.heraldnet.com/section/LIVING0…
Kennetha (Kat) Scott
More...
My name is Kennetha Scott and my niece Chelsey Charles lost her daughter Kaliah to Pertussis in August at the beginning of this epidemic in Washington State. We have been raising awareness and money to send out a PSA, which we recorded with Secretary of Health, Mary Selecky and began airing on April 2nd, and also a postcard as a public health notice to all residents and businesses in our state. We have nearly enough to send to our county of 305,000 addresses, but need help with the rest of the the state!
We are at 1940's level of Pertussis right now. The root cause of this is that most adults do not know their childhood vaccine wears off. That is why we are doing this starting in Washington and then moving nationally. The CDC recommendations have never been shared directly with the public, only providers and schools. Over 90% of adults nationally are walking around thinking they are protected, but they are not, and that is why there are so many epidemics. When they made the childhood vaccine safer, it reduced it's longevity, but they never ran a big campaign to share that with adult citizens, only providers and people that are around babies.
10 years later, and still, no one knows. It took 10 babies dying in California in 2010 for them to find out, now we have an epidemic. We have had to push the state and county into action because they do not have funding to share this message. In the United States there is no entity responsible for sharing CDC or epidemic information directly with the public. It has traditionally been shared with doctors, but nowadays we don't see doctors the way we used to. They don't keep track of everything you are supposed to do, they barely even talk to you. 50 million people don't even get to go to one because they have no insurance.
In the event of an epidemic or contagious disease outbreak, or even a CDC recommendation that a major change has taken place, such as the reduced length of time the childhood vaccine wears off, a direct mail message should go out to everyone, not just providers, every business and household! If it is a national message, then the nation needs to get it!
I have attached the draft of our card and the PSA recorded last week. We have gone everywhere for help but keep getting the same message, "We don't do that", "We don't have money to help"
Who's responsibility is it to actually share this message with the public?
Is there anything you can do to help us?
Here is our blog:
http://kennethaskorner.weebly.com/
Here is the latest article:
http://www.heraldnet.com/section/LIVING0…
Kennetha (Kat) Scott
46
Goldy if you think Vaccinations are good....Then they have done there job..Cuz you are a dumb fucktard!!!....What do you know about Vac';s..Other than what you have seen on TV?..Go do a little research......don't take any one's word for anything.....And if you are not completely...Mindless yet...You may see the light!!!..#1 Mercury is the 2nd most deadly substance known to humans..It is in the Vac's...It is also Cumulative in the human body!!!.....And if your not completely offended by my comment and would like to,learn more..Please contact me here in Spanaway Washington!!
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