Posted on 08/14/2010 9:15:14 PM PDT by markomalley
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 UCLA'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.
That's part of what's behind this epidemic, Dr. Karp tells NPR's Guy Raz. "And it's in part because the immunity of people who were immunized earlier has waned," he adds.
In fact, Karp estimates that 75 percent to 90 percent of whooping cough cases occur in teenagers and adults, for whom it is not deadly. Most adults may experience only a lingering cough. The danger occurs when adults and teenagers — whose immunity wanes around 12 years old — contract whooping cough and unwittingly give it to infants.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
...diseases once eradicated from our country are now coming back. Just lovely.
Think liberal idiots like my sister who wouldn’t get her kids vaccinated
Thanks to the Communist US Government which cares more about invaders than American citizens.
The pediatrician is sure my son'll be fine. He's had all his shots and just has coughed a couple times and has a runny nose, but otherwise is his usual lively self. It's most dangerous to infants under six months, he says. Still, I'd like to punch Jenny McCarthy in the nose.
Gee,I wonder. Could it possibly be a combination of illegals coming here in droves and weirdos who refuse to get their kids vaccinated? Naw, couldn’t be that, because the liberals say it just isn’t so. Guess it must be part of the eeevil VRWC!
“They’re very busy, working hard, working double jobs — it’s really a burden to have to be a parent and then also have to be a biochemist, to read the literature and decide what vaccines are good and what vaccines aren’t good,” he says.
—this is an NPR column, which in LibCommiePC-speak means these are ILLEGAL ALIENS, most likely from MEXICO who carry this disease, along with many others, to our shores with the Government and President’s consent.
Is the highest rate among anchor-babies? just asking.
My bet would be more likely these nuts who don’t vaccinate their kids. WHO interactive maps indicate that it is pretty much all but eradicated in most places except a few spots in the US- East and West coast and North/Central US.
They are just Whooping the Coughs Americans won’t Whoop.
ALL illegal alien BS including Haitians with TB.
I’m guessing it wasn’t “wiped out”, then.
I remember a summer years ago where my mom was trapped in the house with five whooping kids. She’s a saint.
That was a nice resource. Thank you for the link
I am not an illegal, nor am I a Liberal, nor am I an idiot.
My parents were not vaccinated, my immediate family is not vaccinated, my children are not vaccinated and neither are my grandchildren.
Last time I checked, we live in America. Our family chooses not to vaccinate. Live with it.
In my locale, at least, when one gets a “tetanus shot” (as to prevent tetanus from infecting when a wound has been sustained under dirty conditions) it is actually a DPT, or diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccination. Pertussis is, of course, the whooping cough. Getting “tetanus shots” would, I think, be pretty common among manual laborers who risk cutting themselves on the job.
Any government that couldn't care for it's people the way ours has for years needs replacing. Thank God for elections, thank God for November.
I just hope it's not too late for the cavalry. Chief Sitting Bullshit seems more concerned with a Muslim holiday and mosk(intended) at Ground Zero than whatever ills Americans suffer: unemployment, high taxes, illegal immigration, forclosures, bankruptcies, you-name-it.
GHW Bush declared lower taxes with the notion of higher revenues to be Voodoo Economics. What the hell name do you give to higher taxes with the highest unemployment since the Great Depression? Obamanomics?
or die from it. Gee, thanks
Don’t know about the California epidemic, but Polio *was* all but erased and islam let it back in. On purpose. Claiming that vaccination was an “infidel” trick.
We will try to live with it, while you are trying to prevent us from living with it.
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