New Whooping Cough Vaccine

A new whooping cough vaccine is receiving good reviews from the health community. KSMU's Katherine Mayo reports.

A newly approved booster vaccine for whooping cough has been receiving good reviews. Specialists in children's infectious diseases say the vaccine should help to reduce outbreaks of this disease.

Jaci McReynolds, the public information specialist with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, says infants are vaccinated for whooping cough at two, four, and six months, and again at 18 months. The children will then receive a booster shot for the vaccine when they are between the ages of 4 and 6. The children are then considered fully protected, but she says the vaccine is actually only 70-percent effective.

McReynolds says this new booster to the whooping cough vaccine would be given to children when they are between the ages of 11 and 12, when the boosters from when they originally received the whooping cough vaccine would be wearing off.

McReynolds says it is also important for adults to receive the booster for whooping cough. Because the symptoms resemble a cold, whooping cough is not diagnosed, leaving adults to bring the disease home to their children.

Jaci McReynolds says the Springfield-Greene County Health Department has not yet received the new vaccines. But, she says, the health department will let the public know when the vaccines are available.