The Group Health Foundation in partnership with Public Health — Seattle & King County and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is bringing their Silence Whooping Cough campaign to educate pregnant women and parents about the risks of whooping cough, or pertussis, and the need to protect themselves and their families to Renton Saturday.
The campaign is hosting a free clinic from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow at Group Health Rainier, 5316 Rainier Ave. S. to provide whooping cough vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults.
A recent national survey from the University of Michigan shows that 61 percent of adults do not know when they were last vaccinated against whooping cough.
“Whooping cough is a serious disease that can be fatal for infants and young children who usually catch it from parents, grandparents, older siblings, and caregivers. Adults and teens often experience milder symptoms from whooping cough and are unaware they have it,” said Jane Dimer MD, an OB/GYN as well as chief of Women’s Health and Maternity Child Clinical Services for Group Health. “Pertussis can be prevented, yet more than 400 cases have been reported in Washington state this year. I urge all parents and caregivers to get the whooping cough booster shot and ensure your kids are up-to-date on their vaccinations.”
“While Washington is no longer experiencing a whooping cough epidemic, we continue to see preventable cases in pregnant women and their newborn infants, as well as others in the community,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Chief of Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Immunizations for Public Health – Seattle & King County.
The whooping cough or Tdap vaccine is recommended for parents and siblings of young children and caregivers that come into regular contact with young children. A new recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges women to receive the Tdap vaccine between 27-36 weeks of every pregnancy to protect their newborns from the disease.
Infants and children need a series of five DTaP shots between eight weeks and four to six years of age for optimal protection. The protection provided by the childhood whooping cough vaccine series wears off over time, so everyone age 11 and older needs a whooping cough booster vaccine.
Mothers like Suzanne Bassett from Spokane are all too familiar with the risks of whooping cough and the importance of vaccines. Bassett’s daughter, Abby, contracted whooping cough at just four weeks old and spent five weeks in the hospital, mostly in intensive care, before recovering and going home to her family.
“It was heartbreaking to watch Abby struggle to breathe,” said Bassett. “We know we could have lost her and consider ourselves lucky, but Abby still suffers from chronic lung issues. As a parent, I can’t stress enough how important it is to ensure anyone who comes in contact with your baby is up-to-date on the Tdap vaccine.”
Silence Whooping Cough is a public service campaign funded by the Group Health Foundation. The campaign provides information about whooping cough to the community through a website, social media, and educational materials. A new feature of the campaign allows participants to enter a contest to win a year’s supply of free diapers by going to the Silence Whooping Cough website and sending customizable e-postcards to friends and family to alert them to the importance of getting the Tdap vaccine. Pharmacists at Walgreens, a corporate partner of the campaign, will be promoting the contest at all Walgreens pharmacies in Washington in addition to volunteering at the free vaccine clinics.
Whooping cough affects the lungs and respiratory system and spreads easily by coughing and sneezing. The infectious disease can be especially serious for infants and young children and can cause trouble breathing, eating, drinking, as well as sleeping, and in some cases can lead to pneumonia, seizures, brain damage and death.
Group Health and its public health partners encourage everyone to visit www.silencewhoopingcough.org to learn more about the disease.
About Group Health Foundation
Group Health Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Group Health Cooperative, a non-profit health system serving more than 612,000 members in Washington state and North Idaho. The Foundation, with support from its donors, funds grants that promote higher immunization rates in Washington state, supports children’s health education, and enables medical teams at Group Health to identify and test care improvements.
For more information about Group Health Foundation and Group Health Cooperative, visit www.GHC.org.
