Whooping cough hits 4 states, fuels alarm

NEW YORK (MCT) — Outbreaks of whooping cough in four states are a sign the sometimes-fatal disorder has made a comeback despite mandatory vaccinations for children of school age, public health officials said Wednesday.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly infectious condition marked by an unstoppable urge to cough.

"Just as we have been reminded that tuberculosis is still with us, we are seeing the re-emergence of pertussis, a bacterial respiratory infection," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. "Children who have not been adequately vaccinated with the standard DPT vaccine are at risk, as are adults whose immunity to the bacterium may have faded over decades."

Even though the number of cases diagnosed this year is lower than in 2006, many have occurred within the past several weeks in outbreaks in several states, including Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Ohio. A Colorado baby died last month, after coughing to death from an infection once considered a disease of a bygone era.

Cases so far this year have been at their lowest level nationwide since 2000, at only 8,051. But doctors doubt pertussis has been beaten into retreat.

There were only 1,010 cases nationwide in 1976, a range now seen annually in New York alone.

Even though New York is not among states experiencing an outbreak, the number of pertussis cases in recent years has ranged from a low of 450 in 2002 to a high of 1,969 in 2005. There were 1,091 confirmed cases last year, the most recent year for complete statistics, Jeffrey Hammond, spokesman for the New York State Health Department, said Wednesday.

Nationally, the number of cases so far this decade has been as high as 25,800, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It has made a comeback, but the recognition of the disease is better and our ability to diagnose and treat it is also better," said Dr. Thomas Clark, a CDC medical epidemiologist.

He said the pertussis bacterium produces a toxin, which accelerates the formation of thick mucus in the lungs that in turn drives an uncontrollable urge to cough. "The incidence of pertussis waxes and wanes in cycles, mostly on the order of three- to four-year cycles," Clark said.