10 Things You Should Know About Rising Whooping Cough Rates

With whooping cough rates rising sharply across the United States, public health officials have been working to raise public awareness about the condition.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) is adamant about warning the public about the deadly disease. Here are 10 things the CDC wants the public to know about whooping cough:

1. It can be prevented with a vaccine.
2. The vaccine offers temporary, not permanent protection.
3. It is particularly important to protect children and infants.
4. Vaccination also reduces the likelihood of serious diseases developing as a result of infection.
5. Infection rates are on the rise across the United States.
6. The outbreak was not caused by patient refusals of vaccines or the importation of the disease from foreign countries.
7. Not all recurrent coughs are whooping coughs, and not all whooping coughs “whoop.”
8. Mutations in the bacteria strain that causes the disease do not seem to be taking place.
9. The disease is highly contagious.
10. “Community immunity,” in which most people in a geographic area are immune, will not be enough to end the outbreak.

Source: PBS