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Vaccinating To Prevent Whooping Cough
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An eight-week-old baby died from pertussis, also known as whooping cough — a highly contagious but vaccine-preventable disease.
Since infants get their first pertussis vaccination at two months, new guidelines recommend vaccinating pregnant women and adults in contact with infants as a strategy for protecting newborns.
Guests:
- Rachel Zimmerman, co-host of CommonHealth
- Ben Kruskal, pediatrician and director of infection control and travel medicine at Harvard Vanguard, director of infectious diseases at Atrius Health
More:
- CommonHealth: From First Cold To Grave: How Two-Month-Old Brady Died Of Pertussis
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Learn the basics: Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Homepage
- Check your age group: Pertussis: Summary of Vaccine Recommendations
- Take the quiz: What vaccines do you need?
- Recommended immunization schedules
This segment aired on May 1, 2012.