July 28--Idaho health officials say whooping cough is on the rise. But their efforts to control it may be a struggle against apathy and those who question the necessity of immunization.
During the first half of 2010, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare recorded 77 cases of whooping cough, almost double the number seen last year.
South Carolina, Michigan and California are also reporting high numbers. California has an epidemic with six infant deaths among almost 1,500 cases. Officials are encouraging people to get their children immunized and to get a booster themselves.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory disease that was a leading cause of childhood illness and death in the first half of the 20th century before a vaccine was found. Few alive today fear the disease, which is milder in adults and sometimes unrecognized. It is most contagious before the coughing begins.
The cause of the resurgence is unknown but some, including the American Society of Pediatrics, say it's because fewer children are being immunized.
Idaho has had the fewest immunizations nationwide since at least 1997. According to the 2008 National Immunization Survey, around 35 percent of Idaho children younger than 3 years old are not immunized, 12 percent above the national average.
Emily Simnitt of Health and Welfare said the department doesn't know why Idaho is in last place.
"It could be a number of things," Simnitt said. "It could be parents not remembering to get all the shots for their children, or they're unsure about safety."
Simnitt said the whooping cough vaccine is safe and very low risk.
But Ingri Cassel, director of Vaccination Liberation, disagrees. Hers is one of a number of groups nationwide that contend immunizations aren't proven and shouldn't be mandatory for school children. In 2003, she unsuccessfully lobbied the Idaho Legislature to remove the school requirement for immunization.
To support her case, Cassel pointed to a 1997 whooping-cough outbreak in Idaho's Panhandle. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 81 percent of the 253 people who came down with the disease had received full immunization. In a 1997 interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Spokane Health District epidemiologist Paul Stepak said most of the people were older and people lose their immunity as they age.
Based upon a review of the effects of vaccination laws, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research Program concluded in December that sufficient evidence supported the requirement for vaccinations for schoolchildren.
Cheryle Becker, public health division administrator for the South Central Public Health District, said the district's offices in Blaine and Jerome counties saw a huge decrease in the number of people being immunized for all diseases starting in May. But, she said, that's when Health and Welfare closed its own offices in those counties, so confusion may explain the drop.
"It's down about half," Becker said. "We're looking into possible reasons but people have told us they didn't know we were still open."
Becker said she's trying to let people in those areas know they can still be immunized and should be.
Laura Lundquist may be reached at llundquist@magicvalley.com or 735-3376.
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