February 14, 2011

Whooping Cough

There have been a few commercials on TV lately about whooping cough.
And let me tell you, it scares me. The thought that I can give something like that to my son without even knowing or having it myself is pretty crazy.

If you don't know what it is, whooping cough is a flu like illness that can end up killing your baby. Whooping cough is also called pertussis. Any one at any age can get it but it's the most dangerous for babies younger than four months. Babies who are still in their first year of life are the ones most likely to develop serious complications from it.
Now even though this scared me when I saw the commercial, I immediately thought that this was only something that happened a long time ago and that nobody gets it these days. Wrong. I found out that within just the past few years it has become very popular [or should I say 'unpopular']. I don't know exact numbers or anything but I read that just in the years 2000 to 2004 there were over twelve thousand cases in the U.S. alone. I heard that numbers are slowly going down. Thankfully! But don't ignore it. Do something about it.
The best thing I can think of to do to help these numbers and our babies is to get vaccinated. 

Today I got my prevention shot and now it's the hubby's turn!

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