Fatal Case Shows Adults Can Get Whooping Cough Too

Although whooping cough, or pertussis, usually affects children, a recent fatal case involving a Minnesota woman underscores the possibility of infection in adults, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Although whooping cough, or pertussis, usually affects children, a recent fatal case involving a Minnesota woman underscores the possibility of infection in adults, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.Although whooping cough, or pertussis, usually affects children, a recent fatal case involving a Minnesota woman underscores the possibility of infection in adults, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. In addition, the case is only the second reported instance in which Bordetella pertussis, the microbe that causes the disease, was isolated from the blood, according to the findings published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It’s unusual because pertussis normally stays in the lungs and doesn’t get into the bloodstream. Last year, the Minnesota Department of Health was called in to investigate a fatal case of lung failure involving an 82-year-old woman treated with immune-blocking drugs for a cancer called multiple myeloma. Infection with Bordetella pertussis was not suspected originally. In February 2003, the woman was admitted to the hospital for pain control of fractures in the spine, a problem seen with multiple myeloma. While there she developed a cough, but because she seemed to be doing well and had no fever, she was later discharged to a nursing home. At the nursing home, her cough worsened, she developed a fever, and she ultimately had to return to the hospital in order to receive breathing assistance with a ventilator. The woman was placed on several strong antibiotics, but her condition continued to deteriorate. The ventilator was turned off and the patient died soon after. During readmission, tests for different bacteria and viruses all came back negative, the CDC notes. In fact, at least initially, there was no evidence that the woman was infected with Bordetella pertussis. The answer to the woman’s mystery illness came when blood samples were grown on a special medium containing charcoal and sheep blood. With this method, Bordetella pertussis was found. Testing of several people in close contact with the woman identified three adults who also seemed to be infected with the microbe. However, all three cases resolved without incident. Of the hundreds of pertussis cases reported in Minnesota between 1997 and 2000, nearly a quarter involved adult patients, the CDC says. For this reason, doctors need to consider the diagnosis in adults with chronic cough and remember that it does not always have the typical symptoms seen in children, including the classic “whoop”-sounding cough. (SOURCE: United Press, Medline Plus, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Feb, 2004.