Anti-vaxers kill another child

[FedUpWithIt All]

22. Children on a regular vaccination schedule were more commonly affected

by pertussis in a recent outbreak. These were kids who hadn't yet reached the booster age of 13. The vaccine wore off before the boosters.

In early 2010, a spike in cases appeared at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael, and it was soon determined to be an outbreak of whooping cough -- the largest seen in California in more than 50 years.

Witt had expected to see the illnesses center around unvaccinated kids, knowing they are more vulnerable to the disease.

"We started dissecting the data. What was very surprising was the majority of cases were in fully vaccinated children. That's what started catching our attention," said Witt.

To figure out just how well the vaccine was working, Witt and his colleagues collected information on every patient who had tested positive for pertussis between March and October, 2010.

Of the 132 patients under age 18, 81 percent were up to date on recommended whooping cough shots and eight percent had never been vaccinated. The other 11 percent had received at least one shot, but not the complete series.

The rate of cases for each age, two through 18 years old, peaked among kids in their pre-teens.

Among fully immunized kids, there were about 36 cases for every 10,000 children two to seven years old, compared to 245 out of every 10,000 kids aged eight to 12.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/us-whoopingcough-idUSBRE8320TM20120403