Category Archives: Health Facts

A few days ago, we reported on a new CDC study indicating that whooping cough infection rates are headed for an all-time high this year in the United States. In response to the report, researchers are saying that the whooping cough vaccine schedule may need to be modified in order to more thoroughly protect teens and preteens from the infection. Whooping cough cases spiked dramatically in California during 2010. A significant spike was observed in children between the ages of 7 and 10, most of whom had already been vaccinated according to guidelines, according to the researchers behind a new study. This indicates that the immunity provided by the last early-childhood booster shot, given when children are aged 4 to 6, may wear off well before their preteen booster shot, which is given when they’re either 11 or 12.

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that the prevalence of whooping cough infections in the United States will reach an all-time high by the end of 2012. The current year has already been host to 18,000 whooping cough outbreak cases, counting only those that have been reported to the CDC. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases within the CDC, said that only around 9,000 cases had been reported by this month in 2011. For the past five years running, fewer than 9,000 cases had been reported by this time of the year, as well. Dr. Schuchat indicated that if whooping cough outbreak cases continue to appear at their current rate for the rest of the year, 2012 will end up breaking the whooping cough record that was set all the way back in 1959.