The whooping cough is a disease currently on the rise. It proves very dangerous for infants. But in many cases, it is the parents themselves, carry the bacteria, which transmit it to their babies! A reminder immunization among parents is required.
Pertussis circulates among adults
The pertussis is a childhood disease against which children are routinely protected by vaccination . The immunization schedule includes three injections of vaccine anti- pertussis at 2, 3 and 4 months, then two points at 16-18 months and between 11 and 13 years (vaccine this act takes place at the same time as vaccinations against diphtheria, tetanus, polio and haemophilus influenza b). However, there is currently a resurgence of pertussis . But the bacteria causing this disease is not circulating among children, since they are immunized by the vaccination . Instead, it circulates among adults as vaccination immunizes against pertussis for ten years.
In adults, the whooping cough is benign and often goes unnoticed, except for the presence of a persistent cough, unexplained. The problem is they are contagious and can transmit pertussis to unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated or who did not return. This is precisely the case of infants, too young to have started the vaccination program or who have not yet received the three injections needed for their immunization. But babies are very vulnerable to whooping cough , a disease that can put their prognosis in. Be aware that pertussis is the No. 1 cause of death from bacterial infection in children under 2 months.
A booster vaccination against pertussis is needed among parents
One solution: recall anti- pertussis in adults likely to become parents. For some years now, there are official recommendations advocating the adults who become parents in the months or years to conduct a recall immunization against the whooping cough . There is a combination vaccine (diphtheria - tetanus - poliomyelitis - whooping cough) for adults which provide protection in a single shot against these four diseases (take advantage of it to emphasize that a booster against diphtheria, tetanus and polio is required every 10 years from the age of 20!), and also to avoid transmitting the disease to young infants unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated. Thus the revaccination against pertussis is recommended for adults wanting a child, the household members during a pregnancy (father, child and adolescent pregnancy, the mother as soon as possible after the childbirth), professionals in contact with infants or in a case of pertussis in the entourage.
