Vaccine refusal fuels whooping cough outbreaks, study finds
The 2010 whooping cough outbreak in California — the worst in 50 years — may have been fueled, at least in part, by clusters of parents who refused to vaccinate their children, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed local rates of children entering kindergarten with "non-medical" vaccine exemptions, meaning parents or guardians applied for an exemption from school policies requiring vaccines due to personal beliefs, rather than for medical reasons. They compared these rates with rates of whooping cough in 2010, the year the state experienced a whooping cough outbreak that caused 9,120 cases and 10 deaths from the disease.
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The results held even after the researchers took into account factors that could affect disease rates, such as population density.
San Diego County had a particularly high degree of overlap between clusters of exemptions and pertussis cases. There were 980 pertussis cases in the county, and the area in and around Escondido, a city in San Diego County, had more than 5,100 exemptions.
More at http://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaccine-refusal-fuels-whooping-cough-outbreaks-study-finds-8C11301986
Wakefield must be SO PROUD
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