Story Published:
Oct 30, 2011 at 7:47 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Oct 30, 2011 at 7:47 PM CDT
There are just too many children who aren't getting fully immunized for communicable diseases such as whooping cough. Before they enter school and then at required intervals for booster shots by middle school.
You might wonder what whooping cough is. It's a highly contagious bacterial disease that is spread by contact with a carrier. Immunization should come in a total of 5 doses, the first coming at 2 months and the final one before 6 years of age. But it's the booster shot by 11 or 12 that is really important. A study was done in California with 15K children. Out of this sample 1132 got whooping cough. This study found that children who had gone 3 years or more between booster shots were 20 times more likely to be infected than the children who were more recently vaccinated. Children aged 8 - 12 years old had the highest incidence.
The concern is that the boosters should be given earlier and that the vaccine appears to lose effectiveness after 3 years. The study was small but should start debate concerning earlier booster shots. Failed immunizations saw a resurgence last year in Tennessee. In Nashville, almost 50% of the 7th graders arrived without the whooping cough booster when schools started just a couple of months ago.
Throughout the state, barely 1/2 of adolescents get their mandated boosters for tetanus, Diptheria and whooping cough. Only 50% get vaccinated for meningitis and inflammation of the coverings of the brain. It can be transferred in teens by contact. It is devastating and can cripple. You don't want your kid getting it. Only about 33% of girls get the vaccine Gardasil which protects against HPV. But, it should not be ordered by executive order. The elected legislature should mandate it.
Why the resurgence in these diseases? Could they be coming from all the illegal aliens who are flooding in from Mexico? That's something to think about!
