I need someone smart to solve this mystery please.
OK, so according to this article, adults are passing whooping cough (Pertussis) onto babies. Therefore, adults need a whooping cough booster vaccine. But aren't the babies already vaccinated against whooping cough courtesy of the DTaP vaccine which is on the AAP vaccine schedule at 2 months, with another dose at 4 months and yet another at 6 months? So the answer is, if the vacccine is not working in the babies, lets give more to the adults?
Cases of whooping cough are on the rise, according to a new study, and researchers say parents may be giving their children the disease. (Maybe the vaccine isn't working??)
A new study finds parents are the source of a child's whooping cough in 55 percent of infants.
In all, household members are responsible for 75 percent of cases among babies.
A panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends vaccination for all older people if they have contact with infants.
The study appears in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
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14 comments:
Grrrrrrrrrrr....
Can't think of anything else to say....it's just what articles like that make me feel.
I just had my childs pediatrician badger me to get the vaccine yesterday at his 8 year checkup. we live in a part of the country that has the highest rate of whooping cough in the country (boulder, CO). I just agreed to keep him quiet for the rest of the exam and have no intention of getting one. Is it really that bad if you get it? He was also pushing the Hep A vaccine.
Huh. My older son's bus driver had whooping cough a few weeks. I said something like, "guess the vaccine may not really innoculate everyone" but she chalked it up to those kids not getting vaxxed. I just gave the nod and kept the info about my unvaxxed Harrison to myself and I shuffled him off the bus.
I meant "had whooping cough a few weeks ago." Oh, and I'm sure the vaccine works just fine. You know, because those babies were shot up three times, it will make the case they came down with much milder, right? At least, that's what they tell us. Oh, and you'll still get chicken pox, but they will be a mild case! And don't worry about the shingles you'll get when you're older. They'll be really painful and all, but we'll just give you another "booster" that may or may not work. Gosh, I miss the good old days of relying on a healthy immune system to fight off diseases. Cue old lady voice: When I was a kid, we all got chicken pox and we loved it! No school for a week!
Note to Self:
1)Make a Top Ten List for the CDC as a companion piece to my Top Ten FDA list.
2) Copy the Discover Magazine article 1000 times and wallpaper the CDC office bathroom.
Wow. People are just stupid. They just don't know WHAT to do. Even though us parents, hmm...may have some thoughts on that, why listen to us, the Lowly Parent?
I say Lowly Parents Rule.
Oh,and I meant to add Top Ten Reasons WHY I HATE the...
You lost me at whooping.
Let me put it this way - if I walked in a doctor's office, and he told me something like that, I'd be out of there so fast no germs would have time to stick to me. My cats' vet has more sense than that. I shouldn't think it would be that hard to figure out: babies get shots + babies still catch whooping cough = DUH! The shots aren't working!
(Hey! Can I get a medical degree for solving that mystery? Oh, guess not, they give them to the ones who haven't figured it out yet.)
Blogger: "savddt" - uh oh.
Manic - thanks for the laugh. Whooping crane, whooping cough, whooping cushion. It DOES get confusing. LOL!
I read someplace recently that in some cases, asthma symptoms are possibly low grade whooping cough, and when the kid actually gets a full blown whooping cough,(and a boost in antibodies against it) their asthma disappears.
I'm sorry I can't remember where I read this. I'll try to think of it.
P.S. Rumor has it Oprah is doing autism tomorrow.
After I went through my government sponsored class on the wonders of vaccines, and got my notarized document stating that STILL refused to vaccinate my children, (lotsa hoops here in my state!) the health department nurse told me, that I could always bring them in if there was an outbreak and get them a shot then.
So why would I give them 4 shots as a preventative, when I can get them ONE shot if they REALLY need it, if and when that happens?
Whatever happened to risk vs. benefit being calculated in treatment decisions?
Mama Says
hey kim - perhaps the babies are under 6 months old, in the case of vaccinations which require a series of shots, they dont take effect until you get all three, properly. perhaps the parents were slow on the ball. also, i read your profile. every word ray bradbury ever wrote??? what about something wicked this way comes. did you likey????
Few people realize that immunity from their pertussis vaccine wanes after five to 10 years. Pertussis vaccination is only currently approved for those under the age of 7 years. The number of cases of pertussis is increasing the most among adolescents and young adults. Pertussis is an incredibly uncomfortable disease that can certainly impact a teenager's life significantly.
However, the highest rates of mortality occur in infants under the age of 3 months. If you look at varying data sets, they all support the fact that in the majority of cases, infant cases can be traced back to an adolescent within the home as the source of transmission. So adolescents are not, in general, protected against pertussis, and it's important to protect them, not only for their own health and safety, but also for our infant population.
In a recent survey conducted by the Society of Adolescent Medicine, we found that 85 percent of parents of adolescents did not know that the duration of pertussis protection is relatively brief. Immunity from childhood pertussis vaccination wanes after five to 10 years.
bg, you're right - the article doesn't say how old the babies were. And anon points out that the vaccine only lasts 5 - 7 years. Something Wicked This Way Comes? Yes indeed. Even the movie with Jason Robards. HAve you read his latest? Glorious!
Cheers!
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