In the article Whooping cough hits epidemic levels in county by Sharon Salyer, a new outbreak of whooping cough found in Washington is discussed. Whooping cough is also known as pertussis and is a highly contagious respiratory disease. It is known to cause violent coughing which affects a person’s ability to breathe.
The article says that there were at least 220 cases of whooping cough in Snohomish, Washington last year, while there were only 25 in 2010. Young infants under the age of two months are most likely to contract the disease because at that age they have not been vaccinated. Older adults are also more susceptible to the disease because the immunity begins to lessen over time. Doctors recommend that children receive the vaccination at two months, four months, six months, 17 months, and when they are between the ages of four and six.
For those who cannot afford the vaccine, the Snohomish Health District is planning a day-long event where 430 free doses of the vaccine will be given to pregnant women and adults who are around small children. The article also says that the best way to protect infants under the age of two months is to surround them by people who have been vaccinated and cannot contract the disease.
This article does not directly relate to one particular unit we have studied, but it relates to the lessons about vaccination. Vaccination is extremely important and helps stop the diseases from spreading, so when people are not getting vaccinated it is much is easier for the disease to infect a lot of people. It also relates to the actions taken against cholera by the World Health Organization. The WHO sent people around the world and vaccinated many people in an area so that people who had not been vaccinated would be less likely to contract the disease. This idea is found in the article when it says that the best way to protect young infants is to surround them with vaccinated people. I think it is important for everyone to get vaccinated so that other people have a better chance of not contracting the disease. It is also important that people are informed about how the disease is spread and what symptoms are so that as few people as possible become infected with whooping cough.
For those who cannot afford the vaccine, the Snohomish Health District is planning a day-long event where 430 free doses of the vaccine will be given to pregnant women and adults who are around small children. The article also says that the best way to protect infants under the age of two months is to surround them by people who have been vaccinated and cannot contract the disease.
This article does not directly relate to one particular unit we have studied, but it relates to the lessons about vaccination. Vaccination is extremely important and helps stop the diseases from spreading, so when people are not getting vaccinated it is much is easier for the disease to infect a lot of people. It also relates to the actions taken against cholera by the World Health Organization. The WHO sent people around the world and vaccinated many people in an area so that people who had not been vaccinated would be less likely to contract the disease. This idea is found in the article when it says that the best way to protect young infants is to surround them with vaccinated people. I think it is important for everyone to get vaccinated so that other people have a better chance of not contracting the disease. It is also important that people are informed about how the disease is spread and what symptoms are so that as few people as possible become infected with whooping cough.
This article caught my attention because many people hear of whooping cough and take it lightly. However, after hearing Snohomish had 200 more cases in just one year's time. I found this kind of scary because I usually hear about diseases being less popular. I did not know that some diseases are actually being seen more and more. In addition, I think that public health really takes an important measure in the prevention of whooping cough. If everyone took the time to get vaccinated like doctors advise them, then the number of cases would surely go down. Everyone has to become a little more aware of the possibility of getting this illness. This article, I thought, connected to our unit about cholera because in order to prevent it, people need to be really careful about their actions, whether it is throwing waste into water or coughing near someone who has not been vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christine and Micayla and one of the first things I thought of was our Cholera unit. Vaccination is a huge factor in preventing diseases, and its great that people are giving out 430 free vaccines. Also, I agree when Micayla said that it is important to be informed about diseases such as whooping cough. One public health measure is a commercial on television that takes and even plays the sound of an infant with whooping cough. When cases are increasing from 25 to 220, like this article states, its important for people to know so they can take action. Vaccination is extremely important and a great way to protect people from diseases such as whooping cough.
ReplyDeleteI found it quite interesting how the number of people with pertussis has increased more than 4 times in 1 year! It made me wonder what caused the increase in the disease. Like Christine mentioned, you really only hear of diseases being defeated, not increasing. I wonder what it is about Snohomish that whooping cough is increasing. Is it the fact that people are not being vaccinated for it? If so, then I agree with Jessica regarding the importance of vaccinations; it's the biggest prevention of disease spread. I assume, and hope, that with the free vaccination clinic, the number of people with pertussis will lower to numbers like it was in 2010.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be very interesting. Before reading this I didn't fully realize how contagious whooping cough is. Like Jessica said vaccination is a huge factor in preventing the spread of disease. I thought it was interesting that the best way to prevent a small child from getting sick was to make sure that the people around them are vaccinated. This is very similar to the smallpox eradication of Africa.
ReplyDeleteThis article clearly shows the importance of vaccination in these times. I already knew how contagious whooping cough was, but I did not know the age ranges it affected. The information in this article can easily be related to the unit we did on the eradication on smallpox, the same method of vaccinating only a handful of people and then keeping the groups at highest risk of contagion with them is begin used.
ReplyDeleteSomething that really caught my eye about your article was when you mentioned the importance of the vaccine and how some people cannot afford it. Vaccinations for things like whooping cough and the chicken pox are something that I have taken for granted. As a child, it was just something you had to do and your parents would take you to the doctors for. I understand that in other countries the population of people who cannot afford vaccinations is typically greater than here in the United States. But in reality people here struggle to afford vaccines as well. With a disease like whooping cough that we know how it is transmitted, it makes sense that when not everyone can be vaccinated we must surround infants with those who are vaccinated and will not spread the disease. Eventually, the hope is the disease will stop spreading. Health clinics that are running days where vaccination is free is a great concept, but with all of this caution, it seems strange that there has still been a spike in this one concentrated area of Washington. It is also interesting that whooping cough is making the news and there are also several commericals and public service announcements spreading awareness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lindsey that I too have taken advantage of the vaccines I have recieved as a child, and even today. It never really occured to me that people could not get vaccinations because they simply could not afford it. However in the article is says that the vaccination should be given 5 different times. It is wierd to think that getting a vaccination 3 times sometimes still wont protect someone from something like whooping cough. I did not realize how truly contagious or how easily transmitted whooping cough is. I think that it is good to educate people on how these diseases are transmitted so that we can help the population and proect them from the disease.
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