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It’s not just for the little kids
SAN DIEGO-Pertussis is on the rise beyond the childhood years.
When a CDC team looked at three consecutive years in the pertussis endemic-epidemic-endemic cycle, it found that cases older than age 20 showed the smallest reduction from epidemic (1996) to endemic (1997). The drop was only 9%, vs. an overall 19%.
In the epidemic year, Dr. Dalya Guris told the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy here, there were 7,796 cases, an incidence of 2.9 per 100,000- the highest since 1967. Last year saw 6,315 cases, a 23% increase over the 1995 endemic year, and 46% of patients were over 10.
Reasons for the increase aren’t known, says Dr. Guris, but waning immunity after vaccination leaves many young people unprotected five to 10 years after a booster at age 6.
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