AAFP Expands Pertussis Vaccination Awareness Campaign

Almost three-quarters of U.S. adults think they are up-to-date on their immunizations, says a recent AAFP survey (1-page PDF; About PDFs). According to CDC statistics, however, only 2 percent of adults received the tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis vaccine, or Tdap, from 2005 through 2007.

The Academy's survey also found that 76 percent of respondents didn't know that pertussis, or whooping cough, remains widespread in the United States, and 61 percent were not aware that a vaccine against the disease exists. And a majority of respondents, 56 percent, said they had little or no concern about contracting the disease, although the CDC estimates that 600,000 cases of pertussis occur each year among U.S. adults.

Finally, 72 percent of those polled were unsure or didn't know that vaccine-conferred protection against whooping cough wears off over time, leaving adolescents and adults susceptible to the highly contagious respiratory disease.

To address this problem, the AAFP has launched the second phase of Vaccination Matters: Help Protect Families From Whooping Cough. The first phase of the initiative, which is supported by funding from vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, launched in late August and is designed to remind Academy members of the role they play in protecting families from the disease.

This second phase, a consumer education campaign, launched Sept. 24 with AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, and former AAFP Board Director Virgilio Licona, M.D., of Fort Lupton, Colo., combining to get the word out in a nationwide media tour that included nearly 20 media interviews on that day alone.

"These survey results, along with CDC data and reports of whooping cough outbreaks, demonstrate the need to provide the public with more information about whooping cough and how to help prevent it," Epperly said in a Sept. 25 AAFP news release.

Epperly said people should talk with their physicians to ensure they're up-to-date on all recommended immunizations, including Tdap, in order to protect themselves, their families and others.

In 2006, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and the AAFP first recommended that adults who are 19-64 years of age receive a single booster dose of Tdap (2-page PDF; About PDFs) to replace tetanus and diphtheria toxoids vaccine, or Td, if patients received their last dose of Td 10 or more years earlier and had not previously received Tdap.

The consumer education portion of the Vaccination Matters initiative includes a Web page on the Academy's patient education Web site, FamilyDoctor.org, that provides information about the disease and how to prevent it. From that page, visitors can link to the survey, patient education materials and a video testimonial by an adult patient who had whooping cough.