Whooping Cough declared epidemic in California

Jenny is a tool but thanking Dr. Bob Sears and Dr. Jay Gordon would be more apropos. I'll have to try and find it again, but there is a graph of California's vaccine exemptions and the majority are clustered around both locations of their practises in Dana Point and Santa Monica, respectively.

Este
 
This, unfortunately, is not just the fault of anti-vaxxers and unvaccinated children. The whooping cough vaccine wears off after ten years or so, and very few people get the booster shot.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/pertussis/#vacc

Td is a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine given to adolescents and adults as a booster shot every 10 years, or after an exposure to tetanus under some circumstances. Tdap is similar to Td but also containing protection against pertussis. A single dose of Tdap is recommended for adolescents 11 or 12 years of age, or in place of one Td booster in older adolescents and adults age 19 through 64.
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shawmutt said:
This, unfortunately, is not just the fault of anti-vaxxers and unvaccinated children. The whooping cough vaccine wears off after ten years or so, and very few people get the booster shot.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/pertussis/#vacc
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Be that as it may, until the vaccination rates started to plummet, large scale outbreaks were unheard of. It would be interesting to see where the outbreaks are occurring compared with the vaccination rates for those communities.
 
Whooping cough is the new Swine Flu is the new Bird Flu is the new SARS.

That said, I got bitten by a cat last week, which apparently warrants a trip to the ER, an IV antibiotic drip, and a combined tetanus/whooping cough vaccination.

At least, that's what my wife and doctors insisted on.

So I'm doing my part against Whooping Cough now.
 
Whooping cough has been seen in epidemic proportions every year for about a decade. This is not new, but an annual event. Until we get the majority of adults boosted with the adult Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis) vaccine it will continue.

I only give Tdap to my patients when a booster is indicated. I happened to get my routine 10 year tetanus booster today and I got a Tdap just as I give my patients.

If you have regular contact with infants, and haven't had a Tdap booster, get one as soon as possible. If you don't have regular contact with infants, get a Tdap the next time your tetanus booster is due (every 10 years).

This is the evidence based recommendation.
 
SRW said:
Why thank you very much, I had it when I was a kid...believe me you would not want your worst enemy to have it...
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Me too, although I was told it was 'pseudo' whooping cough (I have been jabbed and boosted for everything).

It is evil, I coughed so much I couldn't breath, and I coughted until I vomited. I actually thought I was going to die from suffocation on several occasions.

I remember continuing to cough till I vomited even by the time I could go back to school.

Lovely.

Personally, I think it is a good thing, people forget how absolutely awful most of the diseases we vaccinate against are.
 
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whooping cough is horrible. What is even more irritating is that most of the time, you seem perfectly fine, until you start coughing of course!:(
 
SRW said:
Why thank you very much, I had it when I was a kid...believe me you would not want your worst enemy to have it...
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Ditto. My mother bought into the vaccine panic of the early seventies; not a fun experience and my sister insists on regaling people with stories of my projectile vomiting.:mad:
 
While not exactly on topic, ...

For anyone who wants a fast review of the start and status of the Wakefield denialist cause, there is a new review available on youtube from he Britsh medical scientist DonExodus2.

Part 1


Part 2
 
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shawmutt said:
This, unfortunately, is not just the fault of anti-vaxxers and unvaccinated children. The whooping cough vaccine wears off after ten years or so, and very few people get the booster shot.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/pertussis/#vacc
Click to expand...

It is less crucial for adults, the effects are more pronounced in chillun, but yeah a booster at ten would be good(and recommended at 12 I think).

Without antibiotics it would kill more kids.
 
SRW said:
Be that as it may, until the vaccination rates started to plummet, large scale outbreaks were unheard of. It would be interesting to see where the outbreaks are occurring compared with the vaccination rates for those communities.
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It is sort of common for adults to have it, some studies have said that any adult with a persistent cough(1-4 weeks) is likely to have pertussis, 12-32%.
 
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Dancing David said:
It is less crucial for adults, ....
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This is wrong, David. Whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine actually has a different goal than most vaccines. Herd immunity is the primary mechanism of protection. Individual immunity is secondary.

Here's the deal. Most fatalities occur in kids under a year old. At that age, even with the routine vaccine schedule, the vaccine is not going to be providing adequate protection in many kids. The doses are given at 2, 4, and 6 months with another booster at 18 months. So half the kids under a year (those under 6 months) are not protected.

That means with whooping cough vaccine, the goal is to vaccinate the people who the infant comes in contact with, and to interrupt the annual epidemic cycle.


But, until a few years ago, there was not a vaccine available for kids over age 7. So we all got our vaccine as kids, then a decade or two later, we started seeing cases in teens and young adults. The epidemic cycle restarted.

Now there is a safe adult whooping cough booster. You should get that booster (if you haven't already) with you next tetanus shot. Tetanus vaccine is due every 10 years. A child on schedule with vaccines would get the booster about age 15 yrs.

If you are around infants, and you haven't had the one time dose of tetanus vaccine with whooping cough vaccine, you should consider getting the tetanus booster with whooping cough vaccine sooner than the 10 yr interval.
 
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