Newest Pertussis Study

In a recent study in Pediatrics, children who do not receive the regular schedule of vaccines due to parent choice are more likely to get whooping cough than their fully immunized peers. Certainly this shouldn’t come as any surprise.

The study showed that 11% of cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in a Kaiser Permanente pediatric sampling in Colorado were linked to declined vaccines on the part of parents, and the number of parents refusing immunizations for their children is growing.

These results dispel one of the commonly held beliefs among vaccine-refusing parents, that children are not at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases.

The number of whooping cough cases has grown since the 1980s and there are still deaths every year from the disease.

The study reviewed medical records of children age 2 months to 18 years old in the Kaiser Permanente Colorado health plan from 1996 to 2007. During the study, there were 156 confirmed cases of whooping cough. Children in these cases were compared to 595 control children who didn't get whooping cough.

Results of the government-funded study indicated that those children where parents declined vaccines were 23 times more likely than vaccinated children to get the infection.

It is studies like these that lend support to getting the recommended vaccines including the H1N1 vaccine that many parents are electing to forego because of irrational fears.