Vaccinations successfully guarded children from pertussis, a respiratory disease also known as whooping cough, during last year’s spike in cases of the disease in Alaska, a new state report says.
Unvaccinated children were more than 13 times as likely as vaccinated children to get the disease during the outbreak, according to a bulletin released by the Alaska Division of Public Health’s epidemiology section.
There were more confirmed cases of pertussis in Alaska last year — over 500 — than in all the years from 2016 to 2023 combined, according to state officials.
The outbreak peaked in September, and case numbers have declined substantially since then, according to state data.
SEARHC reported treating 15 patients for the disease in Southeast Alaska last year.
The full course of vaccination was about 93% effective in preventing the disease among young children during last years’ dramatic increase in cases, according to the bulletin which reviewed laboratory-confirmed pertussis cases among children between May and November of last year.
Children who were partially vaccinated had about an 85% protection rate, according to the report.
Pertussis is a bacterial disease that can result in pneumonia. The highest risks are among the youngest patients. For them, “that bacterial infection can move quickly,” said Dr. Liz Ohlsen, a staff physician with the state Division of Public Health who co-authored the bulletin.
Most at risk are infants whose immune systems are undeveloped and who might be too young to have been vaccinated. Deaths from pertussis are rare, but they usually occur among infants.
The impacts to babies can seem sudden, Ohlsen said. “Not all infants will have symptoms that are obvious before they start to develop severe symptoms like difficulty breathing,” she said.
That is why state health officials urge expectant mothers to get the pertussis vaccine, she said. “Making sure that everyone gets the vaccine booster during pregnancy is really key for making sure that babies have that protection in the first two months of life.”
Beyond then, the first dose for infants is recommended at two months.
For young children, the pertussis vaccine is delivered in a package with vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus. State and federal health officials recommend four doses of that triple vaccine, known as DTaP, by the time children are 18 months old, with a fifth dose as a booster at ages 4 to 6
Beyond those years, it is recommended that older children and adults get periodic vaccinations against the three diseases, though in a different formulation known as Tdap.
Aside from preventing the disease, vaccination “also limits and helps protect against severe illness even if someone does get that breakthrough infection,” Ohlsen said.
Alaska has one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country. According to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, a program at the University of Minnesota, Alaska in 2021 ranked second-to-last in overall childhood vaccination rates, after West Virginia.
For DTaP vaccinations specifically, 65% of Alaska children 3 and younger had received their recommended suite of four DTaP vaccinations doses as of mid-2024, according to the state Division of Public Health. That compares to a national average of about 87% as of 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ohlsen said vaccination against pertussis is also important for older children and adults.
“While pertussis is not as dangerous for older children and adults as it is for infants. It can be very unpleasant, I’ve certainly seen patients this season that were coughing for weeks. And it was very disruptive for them,” she said.
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