Whooping Cough Vaccine Required of 7th- to 12th-Graders

A new state law requires public school students in grades seven to 12 to get a vaccine for whooping cough.
A new state law gives schools the option of granting parents a couple more weeks to get their children the whooping cough vaccine in accordance with a new state law.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious condition that produces violent coughing and may interfere with breathing.

Students entering grades seven and above are required to have received a whooping cough shot (Tdap) after their 10th birthday. The schools can conditionally allow students to attend class for up to a month after the first day of class before being excluded from campus.

Oceanside schools opened on Aug. 25.

It is unclear how many students in the Oceanside Unified School District are not in compliance. The websites of OUSD schools are running reminder bulletins such as this:

"A new state law, which takes effect for the beginning of the 2011-12 school year, now requires ALL students who will be in grades 7-12, to be immunized against Whooping Cough. Proof of this Tdap vaccination must be submitted prior to the start of the new school year, which begins Thursday, August 25, 2011.

"Students will NOT be allowed to register or attend class until showing proof of having received this vaccine. Students who have been given a Tdap shot on or after a 7thbirthday will meet the school immunization requirement by providing proof of immunization.

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What is the treatment for whooping cough?

Antibiotics directed against Bordetella pertussis can be effective in reducing the severity of whooping cough when administered early in the course of the disease.

Antibiotic therapy can also help reduce the risk of transmission of the bacterium to other household members as well as to others who may come into contact with an infected person. Unfortunately, most people with whooping cough are diagnosed later with the condition in the second (paroxysmal) stage of the disease. Treatment with antibiotics is recommended for anyone who has had the disease for less than three to four weeks. Azithromycin (Zithromax), clarithromycin (Biaxin), erythromycin (E-Mycin, Eryc, Ery-Tab, PCE, Pediazole, Ilosone), and trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim, Septra) are antibiotics which have been shown to be effective in treating whooping cough. It is unclear whether antibiotics have any benefit for people who have been ill with whooping cough for longer than three to four weeks, although antibiotic therapy still is often considered for this group. There is no proven effective treatment for the paroxysms of coughing that accompany whooping cough.

Antibiotics also are routinely administered to people who have had close contact with an infected person, regardless of their vaccination status.

What are possible complications of whooping cough?

The most common complication and the cause of most whooping cough-related deaths is secondary bacterial pneumonia. (Secondary bacterial pneumonia is bacterial pneumonia that follows another infection of the lung, be it viral or bacterial. Secondary pneumonia is caused by a different virus or bacterium than the original infection.) Young infants are at highest risk for whooping cough and also for its associated complications, including secondary pneumonia. Other possible complications of whooping cough, particularly in infants less than 6 months of age, include seizures, encephalopathy (abnormal function of the brain due to decreased oxygen delivery to the brain caused by the episodes of coughing), reactive airway disease (asthma), dehydration, hearing loss, and malnutrition.

Data indicate that secondary pneumonia occurs in about one out of every 20 infants with whooping cough, and one out of 100 affected infants develop convulsions.

Whooping cough can cause serious illness and even death in young children; 10 children died from the infection in 2007. From 2004-2005, 66 deaths due to whooping cough were reported to the CDC, and 56 of these were children under 3 months of age. In 2008, 18 deaths due to whooping cough were reported in the U.S. Most deaths from whooping cough have occurred in children who have not been vaccinated or who are too young to have received the vaccine.

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