Pertussis outbreak you say? In an unvaccinated population? That's impossible!

[laconicsax]

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/282419

Whooping cough outbreak in Floyd County blamed on lax vaccinations.

Blue Mountain School closed after an outbreak of whooping cough among children who never got vaccinated.

A small, private Floyd County school has closed for the week after more than half its students became ill with whooping cough.

At least 30 people associated with Blue Mountain School have been diagnosed with the highly contagious disease, also called pertussis, including 23 of its 45 students, said Shelly Emmett, the alternative school's director.

x-post in health http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x103483

[onager]

1. And on the other coast...

ABC-TV Los Angeles story from late November 2010 (and it probably hasn't improved):

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- We know whooping-cough cases have reached epidemic proportions throughout the state. Southern California is getting hit particularly hard.

Los Angeles County health officials say more cases have been reported in October than any other month so far.

So far, all the whooping coughs deaths have been in infants. Babies are too young to get the pertussis vaccine and so health officials are asking everyone else to get one so everyone can be protected. But few adults Eyewitness News talked to knew they needed a booster shot.

Either people didn't know they needed a booster or they had fears about the Tdap (Tetanus, Diptheria, Pertussis) shot, which contains the pertussis vaccine.

"My view is that it's really important, particularly if you're going to be around a very young child, to have that immunization, regardless of age," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Fielding says lack of awareness and misinformation is helping to fuel the largest pertussis outbreak L.A. County has ever seen. Ten infants have died and more than 1,600 cases were reported in the month of October alone.

"We are way above where we had expected to be," said Fielding. "We're above any year that we've seen before, so this epidemic continues unabated..."

It's unknown how long this epidemic will last, so Fielding says the best way to save lives is to get as many people vaccinated as possible...

The infection rate continues to climb. In the first week of November alone, health officials say more than a hundred cases have been reported.

Related Content:

Story: Whooping cough at critical levels in state

Story: Whooping cough kills 10th baby in Calif.

Story: 5,600+ cases of whooping cough in Calif.

Story: CA sees most whooping cough cases since 1955

Story: Whooping cough epidemic in California

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health/your_health&id=7793375

[laconicsax]

2. It's an anti-vax dream come true. n/t

[trotsky]

3. Oh but their logic is intact.

It's not the people who aren't getting vaccinated, it's the people who WERE vaccinated and for whom the immunity is waning. The unvaccinated are completely blameless here. Their immune systems are pure and super-charged since they've never been sullied by filthy dirty big pharma vaccines.

[trotsky]

4. Why do you have to hate and fight?

Can't you just let people be wrong in peace and spread false information, endangering the lives of others? Why do you have to rudely tell them not to do that because they're wrong? Honestly, I am *so* superior to you because I am pointing out what a hater you are.