The whooping cough is more than just a tickle in your throat.

The infection, also known as pertussis, affects as many as 1 million teenagers and adults in the U.S. each year.

According to the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the coughing usually lasts for at least three weeks, makes a “whooping sound” and can be so severe that sometimes people crack their ribs, or even develop pneumonia or seizures. 

According to Cheryl Krause, health services assistant director, said that adults are encouraged to get the new Tdap vaccination to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

“[College students] are especially a [demographic] they want to target,” Krause said.

Adults need at least one more dose of pertussis because their immunity is waning from when they had immunizations for pertussis as children, Krause said.

According to Krause, the toxin-producing bacteria can be fatal to in young children.

“Adults are carrying it around in their nasal passages and passing it onto babies,” Krause said.

  When Kelly Lamson, Farmington Hills junior, contracted whooping cough at 6 weeks old, doctors said that she most likely had gotten it from her parents.

According to Lamson, she was initially misdiagnosed by a doctor as having a cold and sent home.

 “[My parents] took me home and the next day, I turned purple and ended up in the hospital for an entire week,” Lamson said.     

 Pertussis is highly contagious and is spread by coughing and sneezing.

 When health services suspected that Lauren Grigsby, Northville junior, had pertussis last year, Grigsby said that she wasn’t allowed to attend classes for a few days.

 With a bad cough, sore throat, chest pain and exhaustion, Grisby said she coughed so hard that it she dislocated her ribs, and was sent to Oaklawn Hospital to be tested for whooping cough.

 After doctors collected a mucus sample from Grigsby’s nasal cavities, they found that she did not have pertussis.

According to Grigsby, upon further testing, doctors found that she had a severe case of bronchitis, an inflammation of the breathing tubes causing increased production of mucus, and pleurisy, an inflammation of the pleura that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage that caused her lungs to swell.

While Grigsby didn’t actually have pertussis, the experience was enough to sway her opinion on getting the Tdap vaccination—especially for those living on a college campus, where so many people are contained in such a small area.

“It was really scary when I thought that I had it because I could have affected so many people without realizing it,” Grigsby said.

Tdap can be administered at Health Services for $25. Krause said that people who were had an allergic reaction to the pertussis vaccine as children should not get Tdap.