Pertussis affects which organs

It helps protect both the person who gets the vaccine and those around them who are most vulnerable to severe whooping cough or complications like babies and pregnant women. We know that the protection received from any of the available whooping cough vaccines is fairly good 73 to 98 percent effective in the first year after receiving the vaccine, but it does wear off over time.

In the same way, people that had whooping cough in the past gradually become susceptible to the disease in about five to ten years. Sometimes when vaccinated people are exposed, they get whooping cough anyway, although they usually have milder symptoms, a shorter illness, and may be less likely to spread the disease to others.

Protection is high—about 98 percent—within the first year after getting the fifth DTaP dose. It goes down to about 70 percent by five years later, and may continue to gradually go down after that.

This may explain why there are more whooping cough cases in older children. There are more reported whooping cough cases among teens—a changing trend across the country that indicates that the duration of protection against whooping cough for Tdap vaccine is shorter than expected. This shows why it is so important for pregnant women to be vaccinated toward the end of every pregnancy. The vaccine works very well for the first couple of years.

Even after five years, children still have moderate protection from whooping cough. Infants usually get whooping cough from a family member or caregiver and are at greatest risk for getting very sick and potentially dying from whooping cough. People who are vaccinated and still get whooping cough usually have milder, shorter illnesses, and are less likely to spread the disease to others, like babies and pregnant women.

The current recommendation is that everyone 11 years and older should get a one-time dose of Tdap vaccine. Pregnant women should get the Tdap vaccine at each pregnancy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention develop and adjust recommendations based on what they learn by monitoring disease and safety reports. We recommend that everyone six months and older get a flu shot each year.

Learn more about the flu vaccine. Research and ongoing surveillance of vaccine safetyhas shown that pertussis vaccines are safe. Moderate reactions to whooping cough vaccine are rare, but could include crying for three hours or more in children.

The only known serious reaction to the DTaP child vaccine is an allergic reaction to the vaccine and is very rare, less than 1 in 1 million doses. There are no known moderate or serious reactions to the Tdap teen and adult vaccine. For most people, the benefits of protection against whooping cough outweigh the risk of any side effects that might occur after receiving a second dose.

Check with your doctor, nurse, or clinic if you have specific concerns. For your child, vaccines are often due on their scheduled well child visits and will be given by their healthcare provider.

There may be vaccination clinics in your community. Contact your local health agency. Some schools may offer vaccination clinics. The local school district or health agency can provide information. Children through age 18 receive vaccines at no cost in Washington through the Childhood Vaccine Program. For adults, call the customer service number on the back of your insurance card to find out if Tdap vaccine will be covered for you.

Medicare Part D covers the cost of the adult vaccine Tdap for adults aged 65 and older. Call with questions about Medicare. Washington Apple Health Medicaid covers the whooping cough vaccine per the recommended immunization schedule. Click here for more information about what vaccines are covered by Apple Health. There may be programs that can help you. Call the Family Health Hotline at or visit parenthelp website for more information. You can also contact your local health agency to find out if free vaccination clinics are planned in your community.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant women get one Tdap vaccine at each pregnancy as early as possible between 27 and 36 weeks of gestation the third trimester.

Getting vaccinated while pregnant helps your baby in two ways: 1 the baby gets some short-term protection from your vaccination because you pass it to them before they are born; and 2 you reduce the risk of getting whooping cough yourself and exposing your newborn to to the infection.

Women should be vaccinated during each pregnancy because the mother passes some protection to the baby before he or she is born, and because protection from Tdap is most effective within the first year after receiving the vaccine.

Whooping cough can be serious for infants, and most get it from parents, siblings, or caregivers. Getting the mother vaccinated at each pregnancy provides the best protection for each baby. If you just gave birth and have never received Tdap the adolescent and adult whooping cough vaccine , you should get it right away.

Your child will also need a fifth dose of DTaP vaccine between age four and six years. Whooping cough is very serious for babies and young children, and the most common way for them to get it is from parents, caregivers, and other family members.

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Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that an adolescent or adult has whooping cough. Infants may not cough at all. Instead, they may struggle to breathe, or they may even temporarily stop breathing. Whooping cough is caused by a type of bacteria called Bordetella pertussis. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, tiny germ-laden droplets are sprayed into the air and breathed into the lungs of anyone who happens to be nearby.

The whooping cough vaccine you receive as a child eventually wears off. This leaves most teenagers and adults susceptible to the infection during an outbreak — and there continue to be regular outbreaks.

Infants who are younger than age 12 months who are unvaccinated or haven't received the full set of recommended vaccines have the highest risk for severe complications and death. Teens and adults often recover from whooping cough with no problems. When complications occur, they tend to be side effects of the strenuous coughing, such as:.

In infants — especially those under 6 months of age — complications from whooping cough are more severe and may include:. Because infants and toddlers are at greatest risk of complications from whooping cough, they're more likely to need treatment in a hospital.

Complications can be life-threatening for infants younger than 6 months old. The best way to prevent whooping cough is with the pertussis vaccine, which doctors often give in combination with vaccines against two other serious diseases — diphtheria and tetanus. While the vaccine does not protect everyone completely, if you've been vaccinated and you contract the illness, your whooping cough symptoms will be less severe and the illness will end more quickly. After an incubation period of 5 to 21 days, a whooping cough infection becomes very contagious, on par with measles.

When you cough or sneeze, others may inhale the infectious bacteria and get sick. The infection starts spreading once coughing begins and continues to be infectious for about another three weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC. If caught early, whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics. It's so contagious that your doctor may even prescribe preventive antibiotics for you when someone in your household has whooping cough.

But when it's diagnosed late, medications are unlikely to control the cough, notes the CDC. Over-the-counter cough medicines are of no help, according to the Mayo Clinic. Whooping cough is sometimes lethal for babies, who can have seizures, stop breathing, develop pneumonia , or suffer brain damage.

The illness killed 20 Americans in ; most of the victims were less than 3 months old. About 95 percent of pertussis fatalities worldwide are in developing countries, notes the World Health Organization WHO.

Of the estimated 16 million people the WHO estimates are infected with whooping cough, 61, died during , according to the most recent data from the Global Burden of Disease Study. It is no mystery that something is wrong. During coughing spells, a baby with whooping cough can have trouble catching their breath, turn red, not be able to get enough air, turn blue, and even stop breathing. The infection starts off like a common cold, with a low-grade fever and cough in the first week.

But coughing becomes so severe by the next week that it can cause you to vomit , turn blue, bruise or crack your ribs, and develop abdominal hernias and broken blood vessels, as the Mayo Clinic describes.