Posts Tagged ‘whooping cough’

Local health officials are urging parents to immunize their children against pertussis—the scientific name for whooping cough—and other vaccine-preventable diseases. But that is a tall order in a region where some families still have limited access to healthcare, and more parents are filing Personal Belief Exemptions.

Personal and automated phone calls, advertisements on the sides of local buses, and a team of school nurses have been working to spread the word throughout the Oakland school system about a new requirement for seventh through 12th graders—a vaccine against whooping cough.

With whooping cough cases pushing record levels, county school and public health officials are promoting vaccination both for children and adults–especially any adults who have contact with babies. Eight infants have died of whooping cough this year in California.