Why whooping cough in california

This is not unusual, considering that the incidence of whooping cough outbreaks is cyclical and they tend to occur every three to five years in California. In San Bernardino County, there have been 20 confirmed cases in and a total of since the epidemic, according to health officials. Young infants are at the highest risk of hospitalization and death if they contract pertussis, which tends to be milder in adults. The best way to prevent pertussis is by getting the vaccine, which is available for infants, children, and adults.

San Bernardino officials are urging pregnant women to get the Tdap vaccine between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy because the vaccinated mother can transfer pertussis antibodies that help protect the baby until they are old enough to get vaccinated. The first pertussis vaccine infants can receive is DTaP which also protects against diphtheria and tetanus , and it is given in five doses starting at 2 months of age and ending at 4 to 6 years of age.

Contact Caroline Kee at caroline. She was part of the team of reporters awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events. The agency says that there were 3, whooping cough cases reported between January 1 and June 10, well ahead of the number of cases reported for all of This is a problem of "epidemic proportions," the department said. And the number of actual cases may be even higher, because past studies have shown that for every case of whooping cough that is reported, there are 10 more that are not officially counted.

Whooping cough , known to doctors as pertussis , is a highly contagious respiratory infection that is caused by a bacterium known as Bordetella pertussis. The popular name for the disease comes from the whooping sound an infected person makes when gasping for breath after a coughing fit. The bacteria spreads through coughing and sneezing. One person can infect up to 15 people nearby, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Whooping cough protection fades fast after Tdap booster, study finds. According to the CDC , about half of babies younger than 1 year old who develop whooping cough will need hospital care. Watt said that in California, between 50 and infants are hospitalized for whooping cough each year.

The statement released by the California Department of Public Health said infants can be vaccinated at 6 weeks of age, two weeks earlier than the CDC's official recommendation. Watt said that the recommendation acts as a guideline and that infants can be vaccinated anywhere between 6 and 9 weeks old; however, if there were to be an outbreak of the disease, he said, the department would encourage parents to vaccinate their children closer to the 6-week mark.

Watt said that the infant's death was not part of an outbreak but that whooping cough has periodic outbreaks every three to five years, and California's most recent outbreak was in Whooping cough on the rise. Although cases of whooping cough dropped precipitously in the midth century, the disease has rebounded in recent years. Opting out of vaccines leaves these US 'hot spots' most vulnerable for outbreaks.