You can lay much of the blame for the measles outbreaks on the alarming number of parents who don’t vaccinate their kids. Both the Minnesota and Indiana measles episodes were traced to unimmunized people who had picked the disease up abroad and then spread it to others, many of whom were also unvaccinated (or unsure), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the story of the whooping-cough outbreaks is more complex, with multiple—and unexpected—sources of risk. To be sure, the illness has struck unimmunized children. But the biggest problem is that the current vaccine wears off faster than researchers anticipated. So substantial numbers of vaccinated children are getting the disease. And since adults are supposed to get a booster, and many haven’t, they’re also vulnerable, even if they got all their shots as kids. The vaccine refusers aren’t helping, but the current epidemic is bigger than they are....
More @ Why babies are dying of whooping cough. - Slate Magazine:
No comments:
Post a Comment