Whooping Cough

Although it might sound like something from decades ago, California is currently having a whooping cough outbreak.

Depends on how old you are and your health, but for infants, it can be fatal.

Unfortunately that is happening right now in California, where this year alone, they have over 900 cases of whooping cough, which goes by the medical name pertussis. The worse news is that 5 infants have died from it.

Whooping cough hasn't been in the news much lately although there have been outbreaks from time to time across the country. Prior to the mid 40's, when a vaccine became available, there where hundreds of thousands of cases every year and it was a major cause of infant death. After the vaccine came into use, the number of infections dropped until 1975 but since then have continued to climb.

For an adult or teenager, whooping cough might only resemble the common cold, but if they pass it on to a child under one year of age, it can be fatal. One reason for the increase in cases, according to experts, is the rise in the number of parents not getting children their vaccinations along with adults who had the pertussis vaccination needing a booster shot.

Right now the new tetanus vaccine, called the TDAP, contains a part to protect from the whooping cough. And since we all need a tetanus shot at least every ten years, it's a good time to add the pertussis part.

Protecting yourself will also help protect young kids you come into contact with and hopefully keep this outbreak from spreading.