With whooping cough cases on the rise, do you need a booster vaccine?

As whooping cough cases are surging globally, some may wonder if it’s necessary to get a booster. Cases of the childhood respiratory disease also known as pertussis are surging internationally and in parts of the U.S., according to a recent report. Bordetella pertussis is a type of bacteria that causes a very contagious respiratory infection that spreads from person to person through small respiratory droplets, per the CDC.

Concerns are mounting in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, where 1,800 cases were reported in the first two weeks of April, leading to four deaths, with declining childhood vaccination rates cited as a possible cause by public health officials,' Rae said. 'This is a very important public health issue, and I would urge those members of the public who require a vaccine for pertussis to take this up.

If someone is exposed to pertussis and is at risk for severe disease or had a lot of contact with the ill person, doctors will sometimes recommend a short course of an antibiotic to act as a ‘prophylaxis’ against the disease.' Currently, there are two kinds of vaccines for whooping cough available in the U.S., according to the CDC.

As pertussis immunity wanes from the original vaccination series in childhood, adults should get regular boosters, Monica Gandhi, M.D., professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital, told Fox News Digital. 'Although the exact frequency of the need for booster vaccination has not been precisely worked out, we recommend a tetanus vaccine every 10 years,' she said.

Everyone in close contact with a very young infant should be vaccinated against pertussis,' she said. 'We call this strategy ‘cocooning,’ where those around the baby form a protective wall against the disease.' For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.

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