Health Officials Urge Pertussis Vaccine as Local Cases Rise
Infant hospitalized with Whooping Cough [photo from the CDC website]
Local public health officials are stressing the importance of getting vaccinated for pertussis and flu after seeing a recent increase in cases.
Since November 2024, 30 cases of pertussis have been diagnosed locally in people between ages 3 and 70 years old, with most occurring in people 16 and younger.
The highly contagious respiratory illness, also known as whooping cough, typically begins with cold-like symptoms and sometimes a mild cough or fever before progressing to severe coughing fits which can include uncontrollable, violent coughing and can make it difficult to breathe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Babies with pertussis may not cough, but may gag and gasp instead, as well as have a symptom known as “apnea,” which is a pause in their breathing pattern.
The whooping cough vaccine, known as DTaP, is a combination vaccine that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The three-dose series can be given to babies at 2, 4 and 6 months old with two booster doses at 15 to 18 months and 4 to 6 years old.
According to the CDC, pertussis is a cyclical bacterial infection that peaks every three to five years. Immunity, whether from getting the vaccine or from having the disease, typically wears off within five years, leaving previously immune children susceptible again by adolescence.
A booster shot is recommended for anyone over 11 years old who has not yet received one.
The illness can be especially dangerous for infants and young children and pregnant people are encouraged to get vaccinated during pregnancy, so they can pass on antibodies which help protect infants from pertussis until they are old enough to be vaccinated.
Locally, 14 cases were reported in 2024 (eight of which were in the last two months of the year), and only one was reported in 2023. The last local outbreak was in 2019, where Humboldt County saw 12 cases (including confirmed, suspected and probable cases).
Additionally, local hospitals are noting an uptick in people coming into the emergency department with the flu. In the past 10 days, they’re reporting 20 to 30 cases a day. Health officials are encouraging people to get their flu vaccine if they haven’t yet.
For additional information about pertussis, visit the California Department of Public Health website, talk to your medical provider or phone the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services Communicable Disease Program at 707-268-2182. To make an appointment for a vaccine, contact your health care provider or call the Public Health Clinic at 707-268-2108.
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Call it what it is, whooping cough.
Nobody knows what pertussis is by name, And all this article is doing is causing fear in the community because of an unknown disease (which is actually well known and treatable).
Talk about a legacy media post.
Additionally…
“…local hospitals are noting an uptick in people coming into the emergency department with the flu. In the past 10 days, they’re reporting 20 to 30 cases a day. Health officials are encouraging people to get their flu vaccine if they haven’t yet.”
why the hell are you people going to the hospital for the flu? Vaccines are useless and Everybody knows the cure for the flu Is Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, DayQuil, and Sprite.
this also cures SARS and COVID.
going to the hospital for the flu is just going to burden the hospital with people who don’t actually need to be in the hospital.
You’re not a mom obviously.
Do you know any moms named Rick ?
I knew, and i think most people know, that pertussis is commonly called whooping cough just like I knew tetanus is commonly called lockjaw. That is far from unknown. Whooping cough sounds a lot more scary to me than pertussis. A couple of people I know have had an illness that led to a very hard to shake cough that bothered them two or three weeks and I now wonder if that has they had.
Now as to why anti vaxxerism has spiked. People naturally have a phobia of getting stuck with a needle. Not to mention getting something pushed into the body along with it. That’s reasonable. So getting a vaccine shot can be scary. Some look to rationalize their fear of something pretty minor by being overly suspicious of what’s in the shot rather than accepting that getting poked by a needle is just unpleasant. Since vaccination has caused a number of diseases to no longer be commonly experienced, the vaccination might appear to be more scary than a disease they’ve never seen.
But I blame the media too. They persist in posting photos of people getting stuck with a needle at the top of every article on vaccination. Yuck. But maybe that’s just me transferring my own needle phobia onto the press. Humans are so easily disturbed.
It’s not irrational fear when people witness their loved ones and especially their children suffer vaccine injury.
It’s an irrational fear when they don’t witness “their loved ones and especially their children suffer” from the diseases vaccines prevent and dismiss that.
Vaccines prevent no disease. That is a myth. More ppl got polio that got vaccinated then didn’t. 100% facts!!
https://kirschsubstack.com/p/the-schwab-study-proves-the-covid
https://healthimpactnews.com/2013/the-real-history-behind-the-polio-vaccine/
I guess it’s all perspective then. You will always have your opinion and others will have a different one. I have an 9 year old, seven year old and a 2 year old. My oldest was injured at a year old pretty severely. He has gotten much better after I stopped vaccinating. My other have never received a single vaccine. All three are doing well, healthy and thriving. I can’t dismiss that vaccines are not 100 percent safe. I guess you just have to choose what risks you take.
The bacteria associated with whooping cough mutates, and all you’re doing when you vaccinate is build s stronger bacteria. In the fifties almost every kid got it, and guess what happened? We developed immunity. One and done virus, get the vaccine. Mutating virus, forget it you’ve a 18-20% chance of efficacy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/whooping-cough-vaccine-less-effective-because-bacteria-mutating-study-suggests-n982816
If they survive and luck out without life long damage. And 30 years is not life long. And the bacteria may mutate because that’s what bacteria do. In fact that natural mutation long before vaccination is how it sprang into existence in the first place. But that doesn’t mean people just have to put up with babies dying.
“Whooping cough was once one of the leading killers of babies around the world. Now that it’s largely controlled with a vaccine, scientists have had a chance to figure out how the disease came into being in the first place.
In this case, the scientists discovered that the ancestor of modern-day pertussis emerged suddenly in the 15th or 16th century.
“That isn’t very long ago,” Parkhill says. “And really, that was quite a surprise.”
It seems that a closely related bacterium, found in dogs, rabbits and many other animals, mutated. That change turned the bacterium into one that spreads easily from person to person and causes that agonizing cough.
The bacterium continues to evolve, and one consequence is the current vaccine isn’t as effective as it used to be. Parkhill says it’s time to use this new genetic information to tune up the vaccine.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/04/25/306845814/family-tree-of-pertussis-worked-out-could-prompt-better-vaccine
Carpenter, immunology double major
?
Opposition to vaccination is rising because of how public health agencies across the country, top to bottom, handled the messaging about the covid vaccine.
Instead of acknowledging that those products were rushed to market because public health believed that the risk they mitigated was so severe that it warranted an expedited process, they chose to gas light the hell out of the public and insist that they weren’t actually rushed and that these first-of-their-kind medical miracles (a fact that they celebrated at first) were actually old technology, and that long term safety trials had been conducted (despite the fact that the products were first distributed 9 months after the declared emergency began and barely 12 after the target virus had first been identified), and that emergency use authorization was the same as approval, and a million other tiny little pointless lies.
Once most people recognize that a source is overtly lying to them, they lose faith in that source. Public health did this to themselves, and I hope that they will recognize that mistake and make an effort to make ammends and demonstrate that they are committed to honest communication going forward. It’s not good for any of us when the population has lost faith that they can trust the statements made by public health agencies.
I agree with you. I have never received the flu vaccine and I haven’t gotten the flu in years. My kids just recovered from whooping cough it wasn’t anything serious.
Same here, no vaccines and haven’t had the flu since my early fifties. I’ll be 82 in June. All the kids in the fifties had whooping cough, and nobody went to the hospital or died in my town. It was looked upon like the common cold. The cough has a big bark, but not a big bite, at least then.
You’re [edit], Espino.
“Before pertussis vaccines became widely available in the 1940s, as many as 200,000 children got sick with whooping cough each year in the US and about 9,000 died as a result of the infection.”
–National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
notice that they are the foundation for infectious diseases, not against
OOOoo, how did nobody else figure that wordplay out? You should immediately call trump and inform him of the conspiracy. Think of the lives you can save! I see a cabinet position , maybe secretary of let the dog out, it’s a new agency.
#@$magawtf?
Well nobody who died of the flu is going to pipe up here with any other opinion, are they?
Common ground, a bit chuckle too. I often find your other perspectives at odds to your steady take on vaccine. Acknowledging problems and benefit pretty fairly with a competent grip. I appreciate you for that on this topic.
You don’t know any elderly people, obviously.
Flu and Older AdultsFlu is a mild illness for some people. But for others, including older adults and those with chronic (long-lasting) health conditions, the flu can be very serious and even life-threatening. Getting a flu vaccine every year can help prevent the flu. The vaccine is safe, effective, and available for little to no cost to you.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/flu/flu-and-older-adults
The flu vaccine is neither safe nor effective, but you’re right about one thing, it’s readily available. Big money makes sure of that. No flu vaccine for a mutating virus has ever been more than 18-20% effective. One and done virus, get the jab.
Sometimes not very effective, sometimes very effective but safe? Hasn’t killed me yet. In fact it makes me feel insecure that it causes so little response, I wonder if it’s doing anything at all.
It is the primary vaccine for which the vaccine injury fund pays claims.
Although, I suspect that has more to do with the total number of doses given annually and the fact that the recipients tens to be adults who can advocate for themselves as opposed to infants.
Right and people say it’s free so how do they make money. The insurance companies still pay them for all the free vaccines. Lol.
I know of one child that passed away recently from a virus and another that ended up in the hospital and they barely saved her, so yes it is very real and I would much rather error on the side of caution than not.
not to be callous, but prove that it was from a virus.
Prove it wasn’t. It’s a stupid path to demand someone prove something to someone who will not accept any proof.
You don’t know what pertussis is, or your friends?! Well Ill be darned, I think we just found out the problem.
Wasn’t this already covered?
Isn’t getting vaccines considered unpatriotic now?
Only if it is tied to climate change.
Vaccines should be personal choice. And whooping cough, is that correlate with the humboldt hack?
The classic symptoms of pertussis are a paroxysmal cough, inspiratory whoop, and fainting, or vomiting after coughing.[19] The cough from pertussis has been documented to cause subconjunctival hemorrhages, rib fractures, urinary incontinence, hernias, and vertebral artery dissection.[19] Violent coughing can cause the pleura to rupture, leading to a pneumothorax. Vomiting after a coughing spell or an inspiratory whooping sound on coughing almost doubles the likelihood that the illness is pertussis. The absence of a paroxysmal cough or posttussive emesis makes it almost half as likely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whooping_cough
Yes, probably one and the same. Tdap is a really good choice in adults for pertussis and is combined with tetanus vaccine. Pertussis can be deadly in infants. This vaccine works.
the tetanus vaccine (laced with HCG) worked really well in Kenya (to reduce fertility)!
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=81838
In 1993, WHO announced a “birth-control vaccine” for “family planning”. Published research shows that by 1976 WHO researchers had conjugated tetanus toxoid (TT) with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) producing a “birth-control” vaccine. Conjugating TT with hCG causes pregnancy hormones to be attacked by the immune system. Expected results are abortions in females already pregnant and/or infertility in recipients not yet impregnated. Repeated inoculations prolong infertility. Currently WHO researchers are working on more potent anti-fertility vaccines using recombinant DNA. WHO publications show a long-range purpose to reduce population growth in unstable “less developed countries”. By November 1993 Catholic publications appeared saying an abortifacient vaccine was being used as a tetanus prophylactic. In November 2014, the Catholic Church asserted that such a program was underway in Kenya. Three independent Nairobi accredited biochemistry laboratories tested samples from vials of the WHO tetanus vaccine being used in March 2014 and found hCG where none should be present. In October 2014, 6 additional vials were obtained by Catholic doctors and were tested in 6 accredited laboratories. Again, hCG was found in half the samples. Subsequently, Nairobi’s AgriQ Quest laboratory, in two sets of analyses, again found hCG in the same vaccine vials that tested positive earlier but found no hCG in 52 samples alleged by the WHO to be vials of the vaccine used in the Kenya campaign 40 with the same identifying batch numbers as the vials that tested positive for hCG. Given that hCG was found in at least half the WHO vaccine samples known by the doctors involved in administering the vaccines to have been used in Kenya, our opinion is that the Kenya “anti-tetanus” campaign was reasonably called into question by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association as a front for population growth reduction.
Vaccines are much needed,keep them coming. I think at my old age I’ve contracted this thing called whooping cough. Oh well , just another cold , cough and no need for medical care for me . After decades of no doctor or medication I’m still here, crack me up.
Have you ever cracked up watching a baby with pertussis struggle to breath? But you re still here?
This is seriously just a simple math problem but apparently nobody’s bothered to do it.
Efficacy of the DTaP at best is 98%.
Population of Humboldt county is about 133,000. Do the math. 2% fail rate would result in over 2000 cases! 30 reported cases is well below normal limits. Pertussis and all of its evil twins have cyclical explosions, this is one of those (bad) years.
With proper care, chances are good you’re not going to die of pertussis. But the shot on the other hand….
(Also pretty suspect how they throw the unrelated scare tactic in about “20 to 30 cases of flu being seen at the ER everyday” ? it’s winter in Humboldt county. And people run to the ER for the craziest things! “ooh my baby has a fever of a 101* I better run to the ER!”)
I’m just here to read how and why people reject vaccines.
So far i have,
“My body my choice”
“I have no understanding of vaccines or the real word”
“My mom instincts are infallible and not crazy”
Please bring some more
I investigated the efficacy of vaccines against a mutating virus and decided a 1 in 5 chance of working a bad bet considering the risks. Hope that helps your survey.
“Statistics are a conspiracy”
I have had a very unpleasant reaction to a vaccine once. To worry about it is not stupid. But I also don’t worry about small pox, polio or diphtheria because others undertook the risk of vaccination.
What is irrational is to dismiss the history of diseases before vaccination changed life. To refuse to admit that the current situation is the result of the efficacy of vaccines and not because getting sick is naturally “no big deal.” To refuse to acknowledge that we have clear evidence with the recent Somoa outbrake of measles that resulted in babies dying that these diseases are still dangerous.
It’s the “I survived and those who didn’t are no big deal” comments that I find objectionable.
I am also old enough to have seen the “usual childhood diseases.” I had a year long series complications from measles. My sister lost part of her hearing from it although she had a fast uncomplicated recovery.
whatever the fuck they are doing to the baby in that picture looks awful
we need nutrition and love, not fluorescent lights, tubes, electrodes and drugs
viruses are not a cause of disease in my opinion and injecting weird chemicals can’t improve anyones health
protect yourselves and your children from for-profit mainstream medicine
If you repeatedly bang your head into the wall, therapeutically, your comment makes a lot of sense
I just got over this flu, I hope. Took 3 weeks, it sucks. I’m definitely one of those people that “never gets sick”
Vaccines destroy your DNA and cause autism and almost all diseases we get is because of them. Vaccines need to outlawed and doctors do as well. If you get paid to vaccinate someone and they die, you killed them. Doctors and nurses are murderers and get paid to put that crap in to little children. Shots full of mercury, dead fetal tissue, graphene, hydrogel etc. etc. Vaccines are how they guarantee you will be a future patient. No smart person would ever get one and even the dumb ppl that do get them are not told the truth about what’s in them and how many ppl have been murdered with them, sickened or mamed. Don’t believe me, then why do Amish ppl never get any of our cancers, illness, autism, polio, no sudden infant death in the Amish community. The Amish only die of old age. Vaccines are unnecessary and pure poison. It is easily researchable. Stop vaccines immediately!!!!
repeatedly sticking dead viruses and other junk into babies with sharp needles actually injures them?????
Nobody should shoot junk anymore, especially babies, however if you must, use a new sharp needle and clean the injection area with alcohol.