Whooping cough vaccination rate among U.S. adults—less than 6 percent nationally.

LOS ANGELES— The low whooping cough vaccination rate among U.S. adults—less than 6 percent nationally is endangering the lives of infants too young to be immunized, federal and state health officials warned this week.

Diagnosing the disease in infants is difficult because early symptoms are generally no different from the common cold, so vaccinating adults “is the first line of defense,” Stacey Martin, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a packed ethnic media briefing here at Mercado La Paloma on July 15.

The CDC-sponsored briefing, supported by the California Public Health Department and organized by New America Media, drew some 25 ethnic media journalists, as well as a few from the mainstream media, from across Southern California.

After the deaths of five infants in California this year, and 1,300 more confirmed cases of the disease statewide, officials last month declared a whooping cough epidemic, calling it the worst outbreak in 50 years. Another 700 cases are suspected but not confirmed.

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The CDC recommends re-inoculation every five years among adults.