Pertussis case at the high school

Thanks for the heads up.

mrincredible said:

We got a notification that a case of pertussis (whooping cough) has been identified at the high school.  Obviously the name of the individual isn’t being released, but they are contacting anyone who’s been identified as a close contact. They did state that the person was at the Homecoming Dance last weekend.

There’s a vaccine for pertussis …. It’s the “P” in the TDAP vaccine (along with tetanus and diphtheria). The CDC recommends getting a booster every ten years. If you’ve had a tetanus booster in the last ten years it was almost certainly a TDAP shot. 

I’m aspiring to remain calm about this … it’s one case and not a trend by any means. Most kids are inoculated so it shouldn’t go raging through the school and community. 

Agreed, but note that DTap vaccine (like COVID vaccine) doesn’t have a sterilizing effect (killing all infection) — you may still get infected and have a mild or asymptomatic infection.  So if anyone around you has an infant, is immune compromised, etc. , then you may want to pay attention to this and ask a physician if a person who has had close contact should have a preventative course of antibiotics (since this is bacterial rather than viral)

Thank you susan1014. Very good points about vaccine efficacy.