Whooping cough epidemic in California at 50 year high

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It's part of the regular vaccine schedule too...if those kids were getting them.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/23/state/n111147D00.DTL&tsp=1
Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California, and is on pace to break a 50-year record for infections for the year.

As of June 15, California had 910 recorded cases of the highly contagious disease, and five babies — all under 3 months of age — have died from the disease this year.

"Children should be vaccinated against the disease and parents, family members and caregivers of infants need a booster shot," California Department of Public Health director Dr. Mark Horton said Wednesday.

The state declares an epidemic after a significant increase in the number of illnesses to a broad swath of the state's population, said state health department spokesman Ken August.

This year's surge in cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a fourfold increase from the same period last year, when 219 cases were recorded.

At least 600 additional cases are under investigation by local health departments. Officials fear that with the number of known and suspected cases at 1,510, the state is on track to beat 1958's record 3,847 cases; midway through that year, 1,200 cases had been reported.

In 1952, 15 Californians died of whooping cough.

Two of this year's deaths occurred in Los Angeles County; San Bernardino, Fresno and Stanislaus counties each had one death. In the Bay Area, the number of cases has increased six-fold but no deaths have been reported there.

There is no shortage of vaccines, which are provided for free to hospitals and participating counties by the state health department.

Whooping cough cases tend to rise in July and August.

Nationally, 23 weeks into 2010, there were 4,656 cases of whooping cough, compared with 6,017 cases in the same period in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials say whooping cough is cyclical and tends to peak every two to five years.

A typical case starts with a cough and runny nose for one to two weeks, followed by weeks or months of rapid coughing fits that sometimes end with a whooping sound. Fever is rare.

Unimmunized or incompletely immunized babies are particularly vulnerable. Three vaccines are administered for whooping cough, from 2 to 6 months of age. Neither vaccine nor surviving the illness provides lifetime immunity.

We recently had (or are still having) a measles outbreak.

When people ask whether I had my son vaccinated (he is dx'd with PDD-NOS), I always reply, "Yes. If I didn't, I'd have an autistic kid with the measles."

As for so many people in California not vaccinating their children - thanks Jenny and all the celebrity shows that featured her spouting her nonsense. Hope you're all proud of yourselves ...

I think the discussion regarding childhood vaccines needs to have a little more intelligent nuance. In America the vaccine schedule requires children to receive a cumulative total of 30 doses of vaccines before they reach 2 years of age. No other industrialized nation requires this many doses of vaccine for their children before the age of 2. Furthermore in America this dosing schedule is a "one size fits all" schedule. No allowances are made for the health of the child at the time the vaccine is due according to the schedule, nor for the size or weight of the child, or known risk factors for that child. So for instance, babies are routinely given a vaccine for Hepatitis B, even if there are no risk factors for the baby in question.

Vaccines provide a necessary public health benefit, and should be regarded as one tool in an arsenal to fight childhood disease. They are not the only tool however, and like any tool, can be overused to the point of being a determent to the health of some genetically vulnerable babies.

Rather than an all or nothing approach to vaccinating our children, it seems a more pragmatic and balanced approach would better serve the littlest members of our society. I think this approach is best summarized in the following article, by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny: http://tinyurl.com/y2kqsu4

I would like to see parents and pediatricians work together to find the dosing schedule for each child that will render the greatest benefit, with the least risk of possible harm to the baby.