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August 12, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Whooping Cough Rise Worries Officials: Children Should be
Vaccinated, Cushman Warns"
Ottawa Citizen ( www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen ) (08/11/02)
P. A9; Reevely, David
This season is forecast to be a bad one for whooping cough, say
Ottawa public health officials, who are urging parents to have
their children immunized. An increase in cases was reported this
summer, according to a spokeswoman for the Children's Hospital of
Eastern Ontario, and as the respiratory disease comes in three-
or four-year cycles, the 2002 season is predicted to be a peak
year. Experts say that over 70 percent of people residing with
others with the disease will develop the condition themselves if
they remain unimmunized. Whooping cough has the lowest vaccine
compliance rate of all the childhood diseases, says Dr. Robert
Cushman, Ottawa's medical officer of health, and at the same
time, "it's the one that requires the smallest crack in the door
to come in." Appearing first like a common cold, extreme
coughing spasms will exhibit by the second week or so and will
last several weeks.
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