State urges public to get whooping cough vaccination

More than 1,000 people in California have been infected with whooping cough this year, and health officials have encouraged the public to get immunizations against the bacterial disease.

A new law goes into effect July 1 requiring middle school and high school students to show proof that they have received a whooping cough booster shot, known as Tdap, before the start of the new school year. Authorities on Friday urged parents to make sure their children get the vaccine early in the summer to avoid a rush of vaccinations in August and September. They also encouraged the wider public to get vaccinated.

So far in 2011, there have been 1,102 cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, reported to the state. That’s a rate of about 8 cases of infection per 100,000 people. The rate is higher than normal, but also shows an improvement from the peak last year, when there were about 23 cases per 100,000 people.

“While it is too early to know if this year will reach the same high levels of this debilitating disease, California is currently experiencing more cases than would be typically expected,” Dr. Howard Backer, interim director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement.

Whooping cough is a dangerous disease that killed 10 infants in 2010, all of whom were too young to have received the first three doses of the vaccine. Health officials say it is especially important that anyone in contact with a newborn baby is vaccinated, in order to protect the infant from the bacterial disease.

ron.lin@latimes.com