Panel advises whooping cough booster for US teens

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U.S. teens should get a booster shot of the whooping cough vaccine to protect them from waning immunity, advisers to the federal government recommended on Thursday.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the booster shot should be added to the scheduled extra dose of Tetanus and Diphtheria that adolescents are supposed to receive.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection marked by severe coughing spells and, sometimes but not always, a “whoop” sounds when patients inhale. It can kill infants and young children.

Reported cases of pertussis have risen nearly 20-fold in the United States since 1976. The CDC reported 18,957 cases in 2004, the highest number in nearly 40 years.

The largest jump has occurred among children less than two-months-old, who are too young to get vaccinated, and adolescents ages 10 to 19, she said.

Two companies - GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Sanofi-Aventis Group, have U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved boosters. 

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