Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/139497
It was well past midnight, and Valerie Castillo was so worried about her 3-week-old son's cough, she wouldn't put him down. She finally propped little Jeremiah on her chest and fell into a few minutes of fitful sleep. When she awoke at 2 a.m. and looked down at her baby, he was blue. I freaked out," says Castillo, who had taken Jeremiah to the doctor two days before, but was sent home with a "cold" diagnosis. She rushed him to the bathroom, where she tried everything from splashing cold water on his face to mouthto-mouth breathing, but nothing worked. "I screamed for my daughter to get my phone so I could call 9-1-1, and after that he gasped and took a breath." Castillo, 24, raced to the hospital, her baby's breath stopping once on the way. When the Denver mom frantically handed her son over to the medical staff at North Suburban Jump in numbers "We are certainly seeing a lot more of it," says Dr. Mary Saunders, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist with Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL. "I have parents come in worried because they keep getting notes home from school that a student has it. It's definitely more prominent than it ever has been in my career." Last year, when Jeremiah was hospitalized, Colorado's reported pertussis cases jumped from 419 in 2011 to 1,516, the highest number of cases the state has seen in 60 years. "It's a problem," says Dr. Wendi Drummond, pediatric infectious disease specialist with Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. "And the only real way to intervene is through vaccinations." Medical Center, she had no idea that she wouldn't hold Jeremiah again for a long and stressful two weeks. Although Jeremiah's is one of the more severe cases, his story hits home for a growing number of people whose lives are being affected by whooping cough, a highly-contagious bacterial infection, also known as pertussis, that has recently hit Colorado and other parts of the country hard. The yearround disease can be life-threatening, particularly in infants, and recently prompted a recommendation that all women receive a vaccine in their third trimester during every pregnancy. Relatively recent recognition that the vaccine wanes, along with the fact that it is not 100-percent effective in preventing the disease, can explain part of the prevalence of pertussis, which also tends to peak in cycles. "And, just as with any vaccine-preventable epidemic, people aren't getting vaccinated," Saunders says. When Drummond's own daughter contracted whooping cough at age 1, she was nearly through her vaccination course (see sidebox), and so suffered a milder case. "She was still really sick from it," Drummond says. The classic case starts out like a cold. But within two weeks, the cough can become more severe, coming in fits. Vomiting, breathlessness, change in facial color, and a whooping sound may follow the violent fits, which can sometimes result in broken ribs. In between, a person might feel fine, but the cough, often most severe at night, can last for months, earning it the nickname of the 100day cough. Quick diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics can help ease the severity and slow the disease's spread. DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) immunization schedule: 2 months 4 months 6 months Between 15 and 18 months Between 4 and 6 years Booster: After age 11 At left, Jeremiah Damian peeks over his crib rail in his Denver home. Above, the baby, who suffered a severe case of whooping cough, poses next to his sister, Jordyn, on Mom Valerie Castillo's lap. For a full vaccination schedule, go to: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html Health & Wellness Magazine • 21