As ACSH's Ana Dolaskie approaches the final weeks of pregnancy, she is making sure all her vaccinations are up-to-date. This includes the TDAP vaccine (Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis) and influenza shot. And she also wants to makes sure dads, partners, and others who are spending time with baby understand why getting vaccinated is key in protecting a newborn baby against potentially life-threatening illnesses, like pertussis (whooping cough).
whooping cough
In infants, whooping cough is horrific. They are especially vulnerable during their first few months, before they can receive their first vaccinations. A new study strengthens the CDC's recommendation: expectant mothers should get the whooping cough vaccine in their third trimester, to transfer protective antibodies to their newborns.
A recent report in JAMA provides concrete epidemiological evidence that vaccine refusal has contributed to the increased risk for measles and pertussis, also known as whooping cough, which are vaccine-preventable diseases.
A new study shows the rapid loss of protection against whooping cough among teens vaccinated with a booster shot. This decline, which takes place over less than four years, helps explain the recent outbreaks in California and Minnesota, and shows that a new vaccination approach is needed.
A new drug for pertussis, or whooping cough, targets the bacteria's deadly toxin. It could be an important player in treating the infection, given that both vaccines and antibiotics are losing their effectiveness.
Pertussis, or whooping cough, is one of those vaccine-preventable diseases that have been on the rise, as we pointed out here. That's because of waning immunity and low rates of revaccination, as well as fears of some parents.
Science wins a major victory in Australia! The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has levied a six-figure fine against a company for pushing a homeopathic vaccine for whooping cough. It is also a good reminder of how important this vaccine is.
As more children and teens become susceptible to whooping cough (pertussis), it becomes more important to protect newborns and infants from contagion transmitted by those age groups. With siblings now transmitting the virus more often than moms, pregnant women need to be vaccinated to insure protection.
In 2012, Washington state had an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough). Nearly 5,000 people mostly babies and children caught the disease. Surprisingly, many of the affected adolescents had been vaccinated on schedule, a new study finds. The recent analysis of that epidemic, published in Pediatrics, reports that the effectiveness of
The news these past few weeks has been dominated with stories about vaccines: the effectiveness of the flu vaccine, the measles outbreak in Disneyland, the anti-vaxers holding strong to their beliefs that vaccines are harmful. Well, a new study published in
According to the California Department of Public Health, the state s recent pertussis outbreak is the worst in the past 70 years. From January 1st November 26th, 2014, 9,935 cases of pertussis were reported: an incidence of 26 cases per 100,000, over ten percent higher than the epidemic in 2010.
Vaccination rates in Hollywood s elite schools have dropped drastically low, according to an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter that looked into vaccination rates in Los Angeles County schools. The schools with the lowest rates are clustered in the affluent Westside, where some schools have vaccination rates as low as South Sudan, where only 65 percent of children are vaccinated.