DTaP in ER?

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We are starting to give out DTaP shots to adults in our ER instead of the traditional dT shots. I am not sure how I feel about this. Yes, there are breakouts of Wooping cough, but should we be immunizing everyone? What do you think? Is this being done routinely in other ED's? Thanks for your input!

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

Thank you for your input! Glad to know I'm not alone with this concern.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

We only have Td ... but with our urban patient population I would welcome the availability of TdaP.

My own last booster was Td, but next time I will ask for TdaP.

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hi i am sorry i just have to chime in here and say that the shot you are actually talking about is tdap, otherwise known as tetorifice, diptheria, acellular pertussis vaccine. dtap is given to infants and preschoolers for their immunization series. there is a difference and the bottles do look alot alike, so much so that the cdc has made posters to put on iz fridges. i am sure though that your er has the tdap, not dtap as that is only for iz clinics.

i work for public health and one of my jobs is running a iz clinic. i am glad to hear the er's are starting to give tdap, we recommend adults who are due for ther td booster to recieve a one time dose of tdap in place of td for that dose. pertussis is very dangerous and is still very active in the united states.

www.cdc.gov is a great website to learn more about iz's.

i think there is still some misunderstanding regarding the two shots - not the last few posters though.

please read through this again. it is important not to mix these up.

steph

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Dear QueenJean,

I guess my point here is that AWARENESS needs to be addressed on PH acute illnesses and unfortunetly the doc I had didn't take the time to think out of the box. When I went to another doc on the first doc's referral (to another IM Doc), I was diagnosed within 48 hours and when the epidemiologist called me he felt it was a very viral pediatric strain (quote) that I had. Sheri

Sorry, Sheri, you are right, I completely missed your point; and I also completely agree with you. When I heard my DH do that "whoop" cough, I thought, "I should know this; this is so distinctive, I think I should know what this is." Then he did it again later, and I was like, Uh-oh....I think you got flippin whooping cough!" His doctor did not want to even test him for it and thought it was bronchitis. He has asthma, and she said she thought he just had really bad, somewhat atypical bronchitis.

I took my kids in to their doc myself, and demanded they be tested. The doc was 100% supportive and said that she thinks whooping cough is extremely underdiagnosed. BUT, since it is a reportable disease, but the lab doesn't come back right away, we were required to keep the kids out of school until their tests came back. I think this is why we dont' see as many docs testing for it.

Honestly, the whooping cough really wasn't that bad. Easy for me to say, though; I didn't get it. I think I have the ueberimmune system--working the medical floor, you know. I think it probably *can* get worse, and I think that it probably is awful in little kids and babies. We were just lucky--or maybe having the immunizations resulted in the disease not being quite as bad as it could have been.

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Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.
Sorry, Sheri, you are right, I completely missed your point; and I also completely agree with you. When I heard my DH do that "whoop" cough, I thought, "I should know this; this is so distinctive, I think I should know what this is." Then he did it again later, and I was like, Uh-oh....I think you got flippin whooping cough!" His doctor did not want to even test him for it and thought it was bronchitis. He has asthma, and she said she thought he just had really bad, somewhat atypical bronchitis.

I took my kids in to their doc myself, and demanded they be tested. The doc was 100% supportive and said that she thinks whooping cough is extremely underdiagnosed. BUT, since it is a reportable disease, but the lab doesn't come back right away, we were required to keep the kids out of school until their tests came back. I think this is why we dont' see as many docs testing for it.

Honestly, the whooping cough really wasn't that bad. Easy for me to say, though; I didn't get it. I think I have the ueberimmune system--working the medical floor, you know. I think it probably *can* get worse, and I think that it probably is awful in little kids and babies. We were just lucky--or maybe having the immunizations resulted in the disease not being quite as bad as it could have been.

Excellent response on the reason "maybe that's why docs don't test as often for the whooping cough! I certainly agree with that. I once worked for a different IM doc and he taught me that if you listen hard enough to your patients they will tell you why they are sick or feeling a certain way. I believe that. I too, have been blown off when I asked to be tested. They ended up nebbing me with 1% injectable lidocaine s/p and I asked the doc if it shouldn't be topical lidocaine and he told me NO! Guess what Mayo Clinic put me on? 4% Lidocaine nebs BID for 1 year and it really slowed the laryngeal sx's and others. Here's to recovery!

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