Alberta pushes for whooping cough immunization as cases rise in Okotoks

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is reminding residents to get immunized after seeing an increase in the number of cases of whooping cough in a southern Alberta community.

AHS says there have been 17 cases of the illness, officially known as pertussis, identified in Okotoks since November 2023, all of which were "locally acquired."

Only one patient required hospitalization.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious illness that infects the airways and lungs. It is best known for causing a cough that can last for months.

In rare cases, pertussis can lead to seizures, brain injury and death.

AHS says it is spread easily through close contact with a known case or with something that an infected person has touched.

Officials say the bacteria that causes pertussis can live for two to six days on dry objects like clothes, glass and paper.

Infants are at the highest risk of contracting pertussis, especially those who are less than two months old.

After that age, AHS says routine childhood immunization provides some protection against infection, so it's important for all Alberta families to keep up with vaccination.

"Pertussis immunization is safe and effective against preventing severe illness," AHS said in a news release.

"In Alberta, it is free of charge for all children less than 18 years of age, people who are in the third trimester of pregnancy (27 weeks), and adults who have not had a tetanus booster in the past 10 years. Pertussis vaccine in Alberta also protects against tetanus and diphtheria."

In addition to vaccination, AHS also says pertussis can be prevented through regular hand washing, covering coughs, staying home when sick and remembering not to share drinks, food, or cutlery.

The increase in cases in Okotoks is prompting some local pharmacists in the area to encourage others to check their vaccine status and make sure their boosters are up to date.

“We’ve been getting a lot of calls from people asking about the vaccine since the outbreak was announced,” said Rober Rofail, the pharmacy manager at HC Pharmacy in Okotoks.

“The vaccine gives protection, especially in small children, and pregnant women because they pass it on to their babies."

Cases rising, vaccination rate declining

According to AHS, 70.7 per cent of Alberta children have an up-to-date pertussis vaccination by the age of two, but that’s a decline from the 77.5 per cent vaccination rate from back in 2008,

Some areas of the province also have much lower vaccination rates, like the South Zone, which has just 58.1 per cent of children vaccinated for pertussis by the age of two.

Data from AHS finds that 91 per cent of Alberta two-year-olds have at least one dose of the vaccine, but a much smaller portion (71 per cent) have all four doses.

“So with many of these infection and diseases, we need community vaccine rates to be well over 80 per cent, and for some of them, including whooping cough, ideally over 90 per cent,” said Dr. Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary.

“This is a very classic example of where we've used population health, so ensuring people that might come in contact with infants are vaccinated as a firebreak to prevent the infection from reaching these little kids. We need to ensure people understand that these remain serious illnesses and that we have to get those vaccine numbers up if we want to get back to our levels of herd immunity.”

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 21, 78 cases of whooping cough were identified in Alberta, according to AHS.

There were 884 lab-confirmed cases in the province in 2023, making it the second worst year for whooping cough in the past decade, behind 2017 (1,054 cases).

Health experts say the latest surge of the illness began when cases started appearing in southern Alberta last year.

An outbreak was officially declared in the south zone in January 2023.

The most up-to-date statistics provided by AHS show 966 cases were reported between November 2022 and Feb. 21, 2024.

The total number of cases in each health zone is as follows:

• South zone — 452;
• North zone — 365;
• Central zone — 68;
• Calgary zone — 42; and
• Edmonton zone — 39.

There were 29 hospitalizations during this time period, but no deaths were reported.