Despite its preventability via vaccination and booster shots, whooping cough has become an epidemic in California. There have been 910 cases recorded of the highly infectious disease as of June 15. So far, five babies all Latino under the age of 3 have died from whooping cough in 2010, which might be attributed to a lack of information on inoculation in the state s Central Valley, a region comprised of a high Latino agricultural worker population.
The fact that this epidemic is concentrated in the Latino community indicates that lack of accessible medical care inadequate rates of infants and children being vaccinated may be playing a role, observes ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. He adds, While vaccination is not completely protective, and boosters in schoolchildren and teens are required to enhance community immunity, the higher the rate of vaccination, the less likely the contagion will be to spread. Hopefully, state health officials will be able to get that message and vaccines to the migrant workers and their families.
