US whooping cough outbreak.

US health officials have just updated advice on immunisation against pertussis (whooping cough) based on a serious outbreak in California. And yesterday, health officials in Grant County, in the state of Washington, announced an outbreak has already killed one infant and infected a dozen others, saying it is on scale that cannot be treated as isolated incidents.  The county’s health officer, Dr Alexander Brzezny, said the county should prepare for more cases.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) completely revised its last recommendation (from 2006), based on the pertussis outbreak in California which has infected over 6,200 people and killed 10 infants.

Irrespective of how recently you may have had vaccination against tetanus and diptheria (a combined vaccination called Td), ACIP recommends immediate immunisation using a triple vaccine called Tdap, which protects against tetanus, diptheria and pertussis.

The two current vaccines are licensed for people aged 10 to 64, but ACIP considered the issue of vaccinating people outside these age ranges, with the intention of cutting the number of infected people who may come in contact with unprotected infants.

The full details are complex, depending on your age and whether you have already received some protection against pertussis. But a simple summary is that ACIP recommended vaccination with Tdap for those from 7 years up, with no upper limit for adults coming into contact with infants aged under 12 months.

People living in the US should check with their physician to see if they need to act on this.