If you're around a baby, get whooping cough vaccine

Most Georgia infants get the vaccines they require to help protect them from pertussis -- a highly contagious disease better known as whooping cough.

While Georgia has not observed high rates of the disease so far this year, outbreaks in other states are prompting public health officials to say another time that a vaccine for the baby isn’t enough. They advise all adults and teens who come into contact with an infant to roll up their sleeve and get a vaccine, too.

The advisory applies not just to parents, but to adolescent siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and day care employees anyone who is going to spend time with the baby.

“What we want to have people do is make a cocoon of immunity around the infant,” said Jeff Diamond, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

6,795 Reported Cases Of Whooping Cough In California So Far This Year

With the highest rates of whooping cough in 63 years and reports of flu starting coming in throughout the USA, Californian and other states' health authorities are urging people to get vaccinated. With apparently only 1 in 3 Americans getting a flu shot last year, public health experts are beginning to show some concern about the next months. Fewer than 1 in every 13 adults got vaccinated against whooping cough last year.

America had nearly got rid of whooping cough completely some thirty years back. Since the 1980s, numbers have been steadily rising. Experts say that the major reason is a drop in vaccination rates. All adults are susceptible to catching pertussis (whooping cough) when their childhood shots start wearing off.

Little babies are susceptible to the complications of whooping cough, that is why 50% of those infected have to be hospitalized. Whooping cough is much less dangerous for an adult than for an infant.

22% of parents refused to have their kids vaccinated in 2003; in 2008 the percentage shot up to 39%. Nobody is sure what the percentage is currently. In some cases, low adult vaccination rates are due to lack of awareness; many adults simply don't know they should have their booster shots. It is something doctors should begin reminding their patients about more thoroughly, health officials say.