Siblings now main source of infants' whooping cough

t's been clear for years that cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, are rising in the United States. In 2012, more than 48,000 cases were reported nationwide -- the highest number since 1955, the CDC said. A major reason for this is that throughout the 1990s, U.S. health officials switched from the traditional whooping cough vaccine to a newer one known as DTaP, out of concerns about rare neurological problems linked to the older vaccine, Skoff said. The downside is that DTaP's effects don't last as long. "The vaccine is very effective in the short term," Skoff stressed. But the CDC estimates that whooping cough immunity slowly wanes each year after a child's final dose, which is given around age 5. If vaccinated children eventually catch the infection, they might not get very sick, Skoff noted. But they can pass it on to young infants, who are at high risk of becoming severely ill. Of babies younger than 1 year who get whooping cough, half end up in the hospital, according to the CDC. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/siblings-now-main-source-of-infants-whooping-cough/