Whooping cough sickens area children and adults

Posted Sept. 22, 2011, at 5:58 p.m.
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State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears
Photo from Maine.gov
State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears

BREWER, Maine — Cases of whooping cough are making the rounds in Maine schools and homes, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and parents should be on the lookout for symptoms.

“If children are feeling sick and develop a chronic cough, they should be checked,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears.

Of the approximately 95 confirmed cases of whooping cough reported this year in Maine, 40 have been in Penobscot County, Sears said.

At the new Brewer Community School, five children have been diagnosed with whooping cough in the past two weeks, said Superintendent Dan Lee. Four of the affected youngsters are in fourth grade and one is in fifth grade.

Acting on the advice of the Maine CDC, letters were sent home to parents. Children in classes where more than one student had been sickened were given a preventive five-day course of antibiotics, Lee said.

All of the children who got whooping cough had been immunized against it when they were younger, he said.

Whooping cough, more formally called pertussis, is a bacterial infection of the lungs that typically causes coldlike symptoms and prolonged episodes of severe coughing. It is highly contagious and especially dangerous to infants and very young children who have not completed the series of protective immunizations.

Cases of whooping cough have been on the rise across the nation for several years, primarily in children who have not been immunized and in teenagers and adults whose immunity has faded.

A recent study found that immunization may weaken as soon as three or four years after completing the routine childhood vaccine series recommended by the U.S. CDC, significantly earlier than previously thought. Sears said Thursday that other research does not support this finding, but that children should still get a booster shot when they are about 11 years old. Adults also should get pertussis boosters every 10 years, he said, preferably at the same time they update their tetanus shots.

For more about whooping cough prevention, symptoms and treatment, visit the website of the U.S. CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis.

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  • Anonymous

    I wonder if these infections are mutating around the immunizations and treatments? Maybe becoming resistant to it? I am not a scientist so I have no clue.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder if these infections are mutating around the immunizations and treatments? Maybe becoming resistant to it? I am not a scientist so I have no clue.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder if these infections are mutating around the immunizations and treatments? Maybe becoming resistant to it? I am not a scientist so I have no clue.

  • Anonymous

    Notice that it says, “all of these students had been immunized for pertussis when they were younger.”  Also remember that there has to be a shot before entering school, so where is it coming from?
    It is not those who are not immunized causing a resurgence.

  • Anonymous

    It’s recommended to have four pertussus shots before they enter school.  There are more than two dozen recommended vaccinations by the CDC before children enter school.  Thirty years ago children only had a third of what the children today have for immunizations.   There is more autism, ADD, diabeties, food allergies etc than ever before.  The children are not healthier and the pharmaceutical companies get richer.

  • http://twitter.com/z_gryphon Ben Hutchins

    Actually, that’s usually just where these reappearances of diseases once believed extinct come from – indirectly.  People who haven’t been vaccinated are the open door into what we used to think was a fortress, and then the people “inside” get it. The non-immunized weaken the herd’s resistance as a whole. It’s a statistical thing.

  • http://twitter.com/z_gryphon Ben Hutchins

    Actually, that’s usually just where these reappearances of diseases once believed extinct come from – indirectly.  People who haven’t been vaccinated are the open door into what we used to think was a fortress, and then the people “inside” get it. The non-immunized weaken the herd’s resistance as a whole. It’s a statistical thing.

  • http://twitter.com/z_gryphon Ben Hutchins

    Actually, that’s usually just where these reappearances of diseases once believed extinct come from – indirectly.  People who haven’t been vaccinated are the open door into what we used to think was a fortress, and then the people “inside” get it. The non-immunized weaken the herd’s resistance as a whole. It’s a statistical thing.

  • Anonymous

    We all are a lot healthier, including the children.  Measles, mumps, whooping cough, and even chicken pox are much less prevalent and they did have lasting side effects or even death.  Links between the conditions you mention are non-existent.

  • Anonymous

    We all are a lot healthier, including the children.  Measles, mumps, whooping cough, and even chicken pox are much less prevalent and they did have lasting side effects or even death.  Links between the conditions you mention are non-existent.

  • Anonymous

    I’d have to check on that too, for each vaccine and illness, that does happen with flu viruses which seem to mutate and evolve in a matter of weeks or months.  However, note that high levels of immunization are needed to keep those diseases in check, as mentioned, the “herd resistance”.

  • Anonymous

    I’d have to check on that too, for each vaccine and illness, that does happen with flu viruses which seem to mutate and evolve in a matter of weeks or months.  However, note that high levels of immunization are needed to keep those diseases in check, as mentioned, the “herd resistance”.

  • Anonymous

    I’d have to check on that too, for each vaccine and illness, that does happen with flu viruses which seem to mutate and evolve in a matter of weeks or months.  However, note that high levels of immunization are needed to keep those diseases in check, as mentioned, the “herd resistance”.

  • Anonymous

    Says who?  FDA, CDC or another organization in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. 

  • Anonymous

    Says who?  FDA, CDC or another organization in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. 

  • Anonymous

    Says who?  FDA, CDC or another organization in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Openshaw/100000044237173 Mike Openshaw

    Brewer school has a continued epidemic from last fall. Any child with a consistent cough should be sent home until cleared. This story will get serious quickly when an infant , or sick adult dies from a child bringing this home.

  • Kevin_Of_Bangor

    You must be a huge fan of Jenny McCarthy.

  • Anonymous

    Because there are more people than ever before living longer than nature intended. bye bye Social Security and Medicare, the boomers are here.

  • Anonymous

    Because there are more people than ever before living longer than nature intended. bye bye Social Security and Medicare, the boomers are here.

  • Anonymous

    There’s  been a HUGE increase in the amount of toxins in our air, water, and food in that time period, thanks to a lack of regulations (or poorly enforced regulations) on polluting corporations. If they can keep us focussed on the minuscule particles entering our bodies via immunizations, we’ll pay less attention to their own major damage to public health.

  • Anonymous

    It’s also due to the fading immunity in adults. Normal healthy adults can carry and spread whooping cough without even knowing it. My doctor explained once that it’s just out there in populations. They have some immunity to it, so it’s not severe, but then the kids get it, and it’s worse, especially the first time around, and it’s very bad for the very elderly who are not as strong to fight it off. 

  • Anonymous

    Whooping cough is caused by a bacteria, not a virus. The bacterial infections do not usually mutate as fast in a way that renders vaccines useless from one year to the next. The worse problem is when people get an antibiotic and don’t take ALL of it. Some bacteria that are stronger will last longer even if you are feeling better, and when the antibiotic stops too soon, those stronger (resistant) bacteria take over. Sometimes batches of vaccine are not as effective too. And if the immunity is waning quicker than thought, I wonder if they changed the protocol so that the immune response was not as effective. 

  • Anonymous

    Also corn syrup and corn products have been heavily increased in our food chain. I would bet my money on that for increase in diabetes, obesity, ADD and food allergies. Especially corn genetically altered to repel pests. And THAT industry has money to spend to prevent meaningful scientific research on the possible connection.

  • Anonymous

    Whooping cough makes whoopie.

  • Anonymous

    Says science based medicine…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick-Thomas/100001463022904 Patrick Thomas

    .

    The vaccine is a complete failure according to mainstream news reports and mainstream studies.   Take a look at this compilation I have made proving this to be the case:

    “A collection of mainstream news reports and studies exploding the whooping cough vaccine myth”

    http://www.dailypaul.com/167931/a-collection-of-mainstream-news-reports-and-studies-exploding-the-whooping-cough-vaccine-myth

    .

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick-Thomas/100001463022904 Patrick Thomas

    Yes, the vaccine is causing it to mutate.  Here’s a mainstream news story concerning that:

    Whooping cough strain now immune to vaccine

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/whooping-cough-strain-now-immune-to-vaccine/story-e6freuy9-1225828959714

    The bacteria that causes whooping cough has mutated,
    eroding the protection provided by the vaccine now given to children,
    scientists warned yesterday. Our findings suggest that the use of the acellular vaccine may be one factor contributing to these genetic changes.”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    Herd immunity is not a proven theory. There has been and is a natural fluctuation in these illnesses from one year to another.  The theory of herd immunity is actually weakened by what we have witnessed in the  UK after the drop in MMR vaccines.  No significant epidemic of the measles there as they scare mongered for the past decade.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    Pertussis is bacteria based.  Bacteria can and more than likely has mutated to the point where the vaccine does not work any longer.   

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    The science based medicine that has not studies the carcinogenic or mutagenic effects of vaccines?  Only 1 vaccine (MMR) of the 40+ “FDA approved vaccines ” has ever been even looked at sideways in relation to autism.  Just because the science has not been done does not mean their is no link.  

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    I for one am a fan of healthy kids.  You on the other hand must be a fan of spreading illnesses since the labels indicate on live virus vaccines that recipients can become contagious to other kids for up to SIX weeks!  Now, how is this “preventing” the spread of illnesses again? 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    “Miniscule particles?”  LOL  Thimerosal in flu vaccines is hardly “miniscule.”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G3W4X2DEEPLQA2TQUO4TSAOT2Q D

    It’s good to see that people are finally questioning all the vaccines that infants are getting these days. 

  • Anonymous

    It’s just the opposite. Viruses mutate faster than bacteria, and in particular, RNA viruses mutate much faster than DNA viruses. 

  • Anonymous

    First off, is thimersol being used in flu vaccines? Only in the multi-use vials.

    Centers for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/thimerosal.htm)–

    “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several formulations of the seasonal flu vaccine, including multi–dose vials and single–dose units. (See Table of Approved Influenza Vaccines for the U.S. 2011–2012 Season.) Since seasonal influenza vaccine is produced in large quantities for annual immunization campaigns, some of the vaccine is produced in multi–dose vials, and contains thimerosal to safeguard against possible contamination of the vial once it is opened.

    “The single–dose units are made without thimerosal as a preservative because they are intended to be opened and used only once. Additionally, the live–attenuated version of the vaccine (the nasal spray vaccine), is produced in single–dose units and does not contain thimerosal.”

    Next (same website) Is thimerosal being used in other vaccines? “Since 2001, no new vaccine licensed by FDA for use in children has contained thimerosal as a preservative, and all vaccines routinely recommended by CDC for children younger than 6 years of age have been thimerosal–free, or contain only trace amounts of thimerosal, except for multi–dose formulations of influenza vaccine. The most recent and rigorous scientific research does not support the argument that thimerosal–containing vaccines are harmful.”

    Finally, how much thimersol is used in a dose of flu vaccine? As far as I can tell, it’s .25 mcg (micrograms). One mcg is 0.001 (one one-thousandth) of a milligram. There are 1000 milligrams in a gram. For a more familiar comparison, 1 gram is 0.03 (three-hundredths) of an ounce.

    Like I said, minuscule.

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