Deadly Whooping Cough, Once Wiped Out, Is Back

[mzteris]

California is in the midst of its worst outbreak of whooping cough in a half-century. More than 2,700 cases have been reported so far this year — eight times last year's number at this point. Seven of the victims, all infants, have died.

And here's what really worries pediatricians like USC's Harvey Karp: Doctors thought they wiped out whooping cough when they developed vaccines decades ago.

The disease hits young children hardest, especially ones who are not vaccinated or who have not yet built up full immunity. The prescribed vaccination regimen begins with a shot at two months and continues until children are 5 years old. For many children, it can take that long for complete immunity to develop — and until then, they're vulnerable.

The California epidemic has raised plenty of questions about the role of vaccination and the increasing numbers of parents who decide not to vaccinate their children. California's Department of Public Health cites three schools in the state where 80 percent of parents have signed a "personal belief exemption" to keep their children from being vaccinated.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129198775&ps=cprs

[slackmaster]

1. Besides the "personal belief exemption" that permits parents to opt kids out, immigration...

...That is, uncontrolled immigration is also a factor. Pertussis is one of several infectious diseases that are both endemic to Mexico and Central America. People who come here to work are required to be immunized for it.

[lbrtbell]

11. Exactly

Even if a kid isn't immunized against whooping cough, he/she can't catch it without being exposed to it. They're being exposed to it in schools, because kids are coming from countries (no, not just Mexico) where these diseases still exist.

Schools need to make parents keep sick kids at home longer, instead of forcing them to come back to school too soon. As a kid, I caught the flu a LOT, because of this. Nowadays, my immune system is just as bad, but I don't catch the flu at all, unless I run into some idiot who goes to their job or a store while coughing and snotting, instead of staying in bed. Employers are even worse than schools, as they pressure people to come to work, instead of staying home.

Without exposure, epidemics don't exist. Whether it's the flu, whooping cough, or anything else, you can't catch something you're not exposed to.

[Roon]

12. I had a friend who KNEW she was sick

(I caught a terrible case of the flu from her) and her boss DEMANDED that she come to work. She went and worked a shift. Her job? She was a sandwhich maker at a VERY busy subway restaurant

[Rex]

24. My ex-boss

fired me after I needed emergency dental surgery. He was furious I was an hour late to work (yes I still went, because I needed the money) even thought I had a piece of paper saying I should stay at home that day. Even doped up on painkillers, he treated me like a shitrag and fired me a few hours later...later that day, he texted me about how sorry he was that I took offense to the way he acted and said to comeback to work (guess he was just kidding about the firing).

[Warpy]

2. There is now also an adult vaccine

and adults can and do pass this disease to infants who are too young to vaccinate. Most adults get a mild flu like illness from it and brush it off as a cold or allergies. A few of us get really sick from it (I was one of the unlucky ones, sick as hell for six months).

Generally speaking, the younger the child, the deadlier this disease is. Infants and toddlers who survive it can have a two year recovery period in which development is delayed because the kiddo just can't breathe correctly.

Public health laws need to be strictly enforced. This is a killer disease and the only "conscience" exemption should be for idiot parents who are willing to put in the work to home school their brats, keep them away from the rest of us.

Antiscientific ignorance like this is going to end up killing children.

[mzteris]

8. I didn't know this. Question:

How do you know if you should get the vaccine as an adult? Should everyone get it? If you had "whooping cough" as a kid, do you need it? How would you know - if you don't remember, if you had wc?

[Warpy]

10. Vaccination was near universal in the 1950s as adults had good memories

of what the disease was like before public health laws requiring the vaccination of school children were passed. The vaccination does wear off, though, and adults are at risk for getting and transmitting the disease, although most don't get particularly sick with it. The disease is the greatest danger to young children.

I'd suggest anyone who is going to be in close contact with infants up to the age of 2 months (when the first dose of vaccine is given) should be vaccinated to protect the kiddos.

[Frances]

14. Agree that having a relative die of whooping cough

or some other childhood disease affects one's thinking.

My mother's younger brother died of a combination of whooping cough and measles; my former husband's mother's older sister died of a childhood disease.

My younger brother is deaf as a result of measles.

Right now my other brother has very painful shingles (a result of childhood chickenpos). My younger daughter had Bell's Palsy Syndrome (one side of her face was paralysed so that she couldn't shut one eye) as a result of chickenpox. Chickenpox vaccines were not available for either my brother or my daughter.

Now my older daughter lives in California and many of her friends refuse to vaccinate their children because they think vaccinations cause autism. These ignorant parents aren't just putting their own children at risk; they are putting my grandchildren at risk.

By the way, my grandchildren don't come into contact with many immigrants, legal or illegal, but they do come into contact with unvaccinated children of native born parents.

[knitter4democracy]

20. My doctor said all adults should.

It's with the tetanus shot now, just like for kids. The only way to know is to ask your doctor, though.

[PADemD]

28. I was vaccinated and still got the whooping cough at age 11.

Missed a whole month of school and went from 100 to 80 pounds. Coughed constantly and had trouble keeping food and liquids down because every time I coughed, I threw up. Believe me, you don't want to get whooping cough. I plan to ask my doctor for another vaccination.

[w8liftinglady]

9. Warpy,I agree 1 million percent!

Saw several diseases We assume are eradicated when I worked in the county hospital ICU..TB,measles,mumps,rubella,pertussis

if DUers are really bored,the list from 2008(latest I could find) on infectious diseases in the US
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5754a1.htm?s_cid=mm5754a1_w

[area51]

17. +1

There was a special on PBS about parents choosing not to vaccinate their kids, and about a baby who almost died from whooping cough that she'd caught from an older child whom their parents hadn't wanted to vaccinate. :mad:

[kestrel91316]

21. [phone]

[disidoro01]

3. School starts in less than a month.

Parents can be harried and things like this sometimes fall by the wayside but please check your child's immunizations before school starts. An ounce of prevention they say.

[EFerrari]

5. Welcome to DU, disidoro01.

:hi:

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[MattBaggins]

6. Paging Miss McCarthy

Paging Doctor.. I mean Moron... I mean Miss McCarthy.

[Maine-ah]

7. KNR

[endless october]

13. this kind of story makes me wish that anti-vaxers would take an immunology course.

there is a safe and effective vaccine for this. herd immunity can't be counted on to protect your kids.

[Warpy]

15. I want them all to visit a pediatrics ward

and find out what those diseases look like, kids with pertussis wracked with coughs and turning blue, kids with measles encephalitis, kids dying from simple disease complicated by bacterial infection because they scratched the itch.

This is why we need public health laws with exemptions only for kids who can't be vaccinated because of things like documented allergy and chemotherapy.

[w8liftinglady]

16. that almost made me cry.i worked Pedi in the late 80's

there is nothing like seeing these kids...pulmonary complications,neuro complications.kids from other countries where vaccination is not easily obtained.

[MicaelS]

25. Agree completely, not even any religious exemptions n/t

[kestrel91316]

22. Their minds are hermetically sealed shut. Antivaxers believe that

vaccines are bad with a religious-like fervor. There would be no point.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

[kestrel91316]

18. Congratulations, antivaxers!

[knitter4democracy]

19. I had it two years ago. Broke two of my ribs coughing.

It got my asthma going, and I haven't been able to control my asthma entirely since. That is one nasty, dreadful disease.

Edited to add: my kids had both been vaccinated against pertussis, but my son managed to come down with a more mild version. We didn't know that was what it was at the time until I got it. My vaccine had worn off years earlier, and there wasn't an adult vaccine at the time that I knew of. After weeks of coughing and breaking the first rib, my doctor figured out that it wasn't just my asthma but pertussis. Turned out it was going around big-time in the schools all around. Anyway, after I broke the second rib and it died down, I got the vaccine. I never want to go through that again.

[kestrel91316]

23. I broke a rib coughing about 15 years ago. I have always suspected that

very nasty bug that year was whooping cough. And the cough went on for a LONG time.

[knitter4democracy]

26. It does--which was a clue for my doctor.

I had that dang cough for months, and it was uncontrollable, round-the-clock coughing. Worst I've ever had.

[Odin2005]

27. Thanks Anti-Vaxers!

:grr: