Pertussis, a highly contagious disease of the respiratory tract, is caused by exposure to bacteria (Bordetella pertussis) found in the mouth, nose and throat of an infected person. Pertussis is primarily spread by direct contact with discharge from the nose or throat of infected individuals. Classic - or severe pertussis - as defined by the World Health Organization, consists of at least 21 days of cough illness (with the cough coming in spasms or paroxysms), associated whoops or post-cough vomiting, and laboratory confirmation. Despite widespread vaccination, reports of pertussis continue to rise in the U.S. At particular risk are newborns and babies who have not yet been fully vaccinated against pertussis, who are more likely to have severe pertussis, and who face the possibility of serious complications and death. Over the last decade, 80% of pertussis deaths have occurred in infants under 6 months of age.
In 2012, approximately 6.6 million children worldwide - 18 000 children per day - died before reaching their fifth birthday, according to a new report released today by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division. This is roughly half the number of under-fives who died in 1990, when more than 12 million children died.
Undervaccination with the diptheria, tetanus toxoids and acelluar pertussis (DTaP) vaccine appears to be associated with an increased risk of pertussis (whooping cough) in children 3 to 36 months of age, according to a study by Jason M. Glanz, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver.
With the school year underway, Children's Hospital Los Angeles experts have developed a safety and health checklist to help kids avoid the emergency room and develop productive extracurricular and learning activities to enhance the classroom experience. What do parents need to consider? Many symptoms of childhood conditions are often discovered in the classroom.
Rapid expansion of programs to prevent HIV transmission to babies and vaccinate children show how results can be achieved in relatively little time.
"Coinciding with World Immunization Week, the Somali government announced on 24 April its intention to vaccinate all children under the age of one with a new five-in-one vaccine, known as a pentavalent vaccine, funded by the GAVI Alliance, with [UNICEF] and the [WHO] as implementing partners," IRIN reports.
Governments meeting at the World Health Organization’s Executive Board (WHO EB) this week must seize the opportunity to improve serious shortcomings in the document that will drive the global community’s vaccines response in the next few years. If they fail to do so, key reasons why children continue to be missed by immunisation programmes will be left unaddressed.
In response to the nationwide flu epidemic and customer demand, Rite Aid Corporation announced today it has obtained more than 400,000 additional seasonal flu shots, which began arriving in stores earlier this week.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a menu of 61 new strains of genetically engineered bacteria that may improve the efficacy of vaccines for diseases such as flu, pertussis, cholera and HPV.
The Diptheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine is sometimes also called the “triple vaccine” and has been around for about 50 years, and it protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. These are serious diseases caused by bacteria.
The California Health Benefits Exchange, established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to offer subsidized private coverage to most of the uninsured, represents an excellent opportunity to improve the quality and cost of healthcare in this state.
This year the U.S. has seen the worst outbreak of whooping cough in more than 50 years. In fact, it has reached epidemic levels in many states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the numbers of cases reported is already twice as many as last year. With kids getting ready to head back-to-school, the numbers of children impacted or killed by this disease could continue to rise if children aren't accurately vaccinated.
A Middlemore Hospital midwife could have infected up to 170 people with whooping cough. If passed onto babies or women in the last three months of pregnancy, the disease can lead to severe illness or even death. Whooping cough is a highly infectious disease caused by bacteria which is easily spread through coughing and sneezing, much like the common cold. Also known as pertussis, it is distinguishable by a “whooping” sound at the end of coughing attacks.
Heath experts are concerned that parents and carers of newborn babies will stop getting the whooping cough vaccine after the state government cut its free immunisation program in the midst of a fatal epidemic.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said there have been 665 confirmed cases already this year, compared with 1,040 in the whole of 2011. Cases have been reported across all regions in England with some areas reporting clusters in schools, universities and healthcare settings.
Australia’s prolonged whooping cough epidemic has entered a disturbing new phase, with a study showing a new strain or genotype may be responsible for the sharp rise in the number of cases.
The news comes after the state experienced a whooping cough epidemic in 2010 when 9,000 were infected. Most vulnerable to the disease are infants too young to be fully immunized. Ten babies died after exposure from adults or older children. The last year in which no one died was 1991, when the state recorded just 249 cases of pertussis.
Promoting immunizations as a part of routine office-based medical practice is needed to improve adult vaccination rates, a highly effective way to curb the spread of diseases across communities, prevent needless illness and deaths, and lower health care costs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
The whooping cough vaccine given to babies and toddlers loses much of its effectiveness after just three years. Doctors believe that could help explain a recent series of outbreaks in the U.S. among children who were fully vaccinated, a study suggests.
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