2002 Reportable Communicable Disease Summary

Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory disease that is transmitted from person to person through direct contact with respiratory secretions (droplet transmission). Despite increasing immunization rates in Oregon children, pertussis holds the dubious distinction of being the only vaccine-preventable disease increasing in incidence. In 2002, Oregon experienced a 25-year high in the number of cases reported. While pertussis is often a mild but lingering illness in adults, it poses significant risk for hospitalization and death of infants (>6months). In late 2002, Oregon changed its case definition of confirmed pertussis case to include PCR-positive results in a person with a clinical diagnosis of the disease.