Thanks Anti-Vaxxers! California’s whooping cough outbreak is officially an epidemic.
The disease is cyclical, so outbreaks like this are expected every three to five years, although certain factors are known to contribute to their severity. The last peak, which occurred back in 2010, saw over 9,000 reported cases and 10 infant deaths. Studying the data at several years’ distance, researchers last year were able to confirm that vaccine refusal helped fuel the epidemic. As NPR reported in September:
They compared the location and number of whooping cough, or pertussis, cases in that outbreak with the personal belief exemptions filed by parents who chose not to vaccinate for reasons other than a child’s health. (Some children with compromised immune systems aren’t able to be vaccinated.)
…They found that people who lived in areas with high rates of personal belief exemptions were 2 1/2 times more likely to live in a place with lots of pertussis cases. “The exemptions clustered spatially and were associated with clusters of cases,” Jessica Atwell, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead author on the study, told Shots. It was published online in the journal Pediatrics.
More at http://www.salon.com/2014/06/16/californias_whooping_cough_outbreak_is_officially_an_epidemic/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
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