Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial infection — spreading through the air through breathing, coughing or sneezing — that starts out like a common cold, then about two weeks later, a violent cough in which a person cannot get a breath and makes high-pitched gasping noise, Patterson said. The disease is dangerous for young children, older adults and those who are immunocompromised.
The nature of the cough can cause anoxia — an absence of oxygen. Whooping cough is preventable with vaccination, Patterson said.
“This is one of those diseases that drives a health commissioner crazy [because] this is a vaccine preventable disease that we’re dealing with in the year 2023 that we shouldn’t have mothers and parents and families worried about,” Patterson said. “... As more and more people choose to waive the required vaccines for children, more and more people are going to be getting pertussis and spreading it to other folks in the community.”
Patterson said it is important to stay up-to-date on vaccinations to prevent spreading pertussis to those whose vaccine efficacy has waned or those who do not have the vaccine. Patterson said his daughter got whooping cough when she was in middle school, but he would not have known that was what she had if he hadn’t requested a test for it from her doctor.
Pertussis is diagnosed by recognition of the distinctive breaths a patient takes or through a nasal and throat swab, Patterson said.
Patterson said he expects to see more pertussis cases before the year’s end, particularly as the weather gets colder and people are around others indoors more.
This increase is not limited to Clark County; the state of Ohio has reported more whooping cough cases in 2023 than any other state in the U.S. The state has 521 reported cases of the disease this year through Sept. 30, followed by New York with 386, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of cases of the highly infectious bacterial disease considered most serious for babies and young children has already surpassed 2022 totals for the entire year, CDC data shows.
Montgomery County also saw a doubling of whooping cause cases so far compared to all of 2022.
Treatments include supplemental oxygen, antibiotics and medications that relax the muscles to make the cough less violent, Patterson said. Symptoms typically develop five to 10 days after contact with the disease, but it can take longer in some cases.
If untreated before the “whooping” stage, Patterson said a person can experience up to 10 weeks of the violent cough, even after being treated with antibiotics.
The Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis) vaccine is safe and effective for most people, Patterson said, and he said that he and his family all got the shot themselves.
“It makes public health less effective when ... the community does not use the tools that have been presented to them to lessen disease,” Patterson said.
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