Whooping cough redux; your story?

[nurseprnRN]

All, just got the following from a colleague (identifying details changed):

My granddaughter Sarah has had 8 visits to the doctor's office in the past couple of weeks. She was first diagnosed with and treated for croup, then chronic asthma, and then bronchospasms due to allergies. Last week I took her to the Children's Theater and at intermission I had to call 911 because she couldn't catch her breath and she was getting cyanotic. After oxygen and an albuterol treatment she improved, but just to her baseline. Seen the following day and she was finally tested for whooping cough. The test just came back positive.

It is scary because she feels so ill but never complains and we see no improvement. Now her mother and brother have been diagnosed with whooping cough and the the rest of the family is being treated. I was told today that I should also be treated since she spend a a lot of time with me and am awaiting my physician's call back. In the meantime Sarah is no better and is also having bad headaches, stomach aches, sweats, and general malaise. And we are told it can last up to three months.

And this is why people should have their kids immunized. Physicians who haven't seen a lot of whooping cough since the immunizations became available don't recognize a variant case like this; this kid has been so sick and misdiagnosed for weeks; now her whole family is in treatment. What about other children at her school? What about the kid she got it from?

If you want to start the antivax rant, there are other threads for that, and please take the trouble to go there. Anyone who has similar stories to share, though, this is the place for you.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Because many parents feel that giving 8 vaccines all at once can be overwhelming to a child's still-forming immune system, and that it's better to spread them out a bit, giving the vaccines that are more important in infants, such as DTap and MMR, and waiting on the ones that are more important when they're older, such as varicella and HBV.

While I have seen 8 vaccines given all at once, it was only in a toddler that hadn't received any vaccines and the parents saw the error of their ways when he was hospitalized with meningitis. So prior to d/c, he got about 8.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Interesting site:

Anti-Vaccine Body Count

[OCNRN63, RN]

Seven years ago my 16 year old traveled to a larger city for the weekend and then came down with whooping cough about a week and a half later. Except that we didn't know it was whooping cough - we thought it was just a bad cold with the worst cough he had ever had. All my children had been vaccinated, including him. One by one, my older children caught it from him, including two that had asthma. We inadvertently exposed my newborn grand daughter to it as well when one of my apparently-healthy daughters went to stay with her sister to help her with the new baby and then came down sick while she was there. I remember laying awake at night listening to my household coughing and coughing and being SO frustrated that nothing stopped it. After some research (I was not a nurse back then) I finally realized that they had all the symptoms of whooping cough and got it tested. Then our practitioner gave the treatment to everyone, plus prophylactic antibiotics to my husband and I and any family that hadn't come down with it.

My two children that had asthma coughed for six or seven months. My 16 year old, previously very healthy, now coughs for a long time whenever he gets a cold. My newborn granddaughter survived after a couple weeks in a large children's hospital, but ended up with some damage to her lungs. I know first-hand that immunizations are not 100 percent, and also that they wear off. Once the cough sets in, the patient is stuck with it for a long time (it used to be called the 100-day cough), but they should still get the antibiotic treatment so they don't continue to expose others.

Does anyone know how long immunity lasts after you have had the actual disease whooping cough?

​I wound up with asthma as a result of my bout with it. It's gotten better over the years, but if I get a URI that causes a cough, I really cough.

[ReOxyS]

I have absolutely no way of knowing for sure, but I can't help but wonder if I might have had pertussis a bit over a year ago. There was nothing massively wrong with me, but I would have coughing spells that came on without any real warning. They were pretty well outside of my control, too. I'd cough and cough and cough, take a loud shuttering breath as if my diaphragm couldn't muster a smooth contraction, cough and cough and cough, another shuttering breath. Before long I'd be dry heaving between coughs. Never actually vomited, though. I had my vaccs as a kid, but hadn't had any boosters for a significant time.

[rumwynnieRN]

Silly Likes - I guess some of them will get a visit from natural selection.

If you scroll down to number five, it talks about a couple who declined to have their newborn daughter vaccinated because they're "poison" then proceeded to take her to a car full of weed and cigarette smoke. There's also a reaction further down from a nurse who got upset with a family member who brought their dog in for hypoglycemia (I'm assuming they took their dog to a regular ER or maybe that's a typo, I don't know. Anyway she only fed the dog every 3 days), and the person (says nurse) taking care of them says, "DO YOU ONLY EAT EVERY FEW DAYS?!"

I have, on occasion, wanted to say something to that effect to patients and their family members.

[Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I am not aware of any credible research that suggests the CDC schedule on vaccinations is anything a baby "can't handle". In fact, the schedule has been thoroughly researched and the vaccines given together are for a reason. It's scary how much misinformation there is regarding vaccines. Part of the reason I don't think I could work peds- vaccinations are definitely my hill to die on.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Part of the reason I don't think I could work peds- vaccinations are definitely my hill to die on.

When I chose to go into nursing, I surprised many people who assumed I would go into pediatrics, mother/baby, stay in that genre because of my pre-nursing volunteerism and interests. Fact is, I SUFFERED through my school's maternity clinical rotation because of how I saw breastfeeding handled (by parents, staff, and students). And then the anti-vax crowd just was the icing on the cake of refusal for me...no way could I spend my workday fighting that nightmare, it would personally drain me to death.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Visit The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP's) Vaccine Update for Healthcare Providers

Upcoming Vaccine Webinar: Sept. 10 and Nov. 19, 2014 or Access archived webinars here offers free CE.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

With all due respect...the 2 month vaccine recommendation is DTaP, Hib, HBV, Rotavirus, IPV, and one more that I know I'm forgetting. That's 8. The 6 month vaccine can be as many as. 9 at once if it's the flu season. And I've never seen a 2mo infant who caught HBV from the community, due to not being immunized. Not sure what makes you think I've never seen a child with a vaccine preventable illness.

You are forgetting the PCV or Prevnar. I don't know anyone who gives these vaccines individually (unless of course the parents ask for it that way). The IPV, Hep B, and Dtap are in a combo called Pediarix or there is the Dtap, IPV, and Hib are in a combo called Pentacel. Any medical provider who understands immunity and children SHOULD know that there is no reason to delay vaccines in an otherwise healthy and normal child.

[klone, MSN, RN]

You are forgetting the PCV or Prevnar. I don't know anyone who gives these vaccines individually (unless of course the parents ask for it that way). The IPV, Hep B, and Dtap are in a combo called Pediarix or there is the Dtap, IPV, and Hib are in a combo called Pentacel.

Right, but those are still separate vaccines, even if they're all combined into one shot.

[lrobinson5]

What on earth do blood transfusions have to do with this topic? I'm confused...

Someone had mentioned delaying certain vaccinations because they "aren't necessary". The one they mentioned specifically was the Hepatitis B vaccine. My response was that if my child needs a blood transfusion (which no one expects will happen) I would regret not having vaccinated my baby for Hep B. I know it would be very unlikely to contract Hep B from a blood transfusion, but I find that to be more of a risk than any adverse reaction caused by just vaccinating them in the first place.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Right, but those are still separate vaccines, even if they're all combined into one shot.

Again why delay the potential benefits of receiving them??