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May 10, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Whooping Cough Found in Russian-Born Adopted Baby"

Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (05/09/02); McCook, Alison

In April, a baby was adopted by an American family from an orphan ward in a Russian hospital, and local physicians there diagnosed the child's cough as being from a simple cold.  However, upon arriving in the United States, the infant was rediagnosed as having whooping cough, and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now working with the airline, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and adoption agencies to try to identify anyone who may have been exposed to the bacterium carried by this child or by other sick children at the Bryansk hospital.  Study author Dr. Kristy Murray-Lillibridge, who reported the case in the current issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, noted that even previously vaccinated adults who were exposed to the infant could contract the disease, as immunity from the childhood shots tends to fade.  Another concern, she said, is that newly infected could transmit whooping cough to a young child, who could experience severe complications.

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