Breathe Easy

The media blames outbreaks of whooping cough on parents who choose not to vaccinate, but evidence says otherwise

California health officials declared a whooping cough epidemic on June 24, 2010. Every three to five years, whooping cough cases spike upward. Prior to last summer, California’s most recent epidemic of whooping cough was in 2005.

As regularly as whooping cough outbreaks come around, reports appear in the media blaming the outbreak on parents who choose to not vaccinate their children. But are the unvaccinated causing the epidemic? What do public health authorities recommend we do to protect our babies? What options do we have?

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a respiratory disease caused by toxins of the Bordetella pertussis bacteria. This triggers a strong immune response, especially in children and babies, producing large amounts of thick, sticky mucus that can block breathing passageways. Pertussis’s hallmark wrenching cough ends with the characteristic whooping sound as the child struggles to breathe. This is often followed by vomiting.