Mississippi Baby Dies of Whooping Cough, the State's First Pertussis Death in 13 Years
Source: Mississippi Free Press
A baby in Mississippi has died of whooping cough, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced on Monday, marking the states first whooping cough death in 13 years. The infant was less than two months old and was not old enough to receive the pertussis vaccine, the agency said.
Mississippi has seen 115 pertussis cases from Jan. 1, 2025, to Sept. 29. Through all of 2024, the state had only detected 49 whooping cough cases, MSDH reported. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said that Mississippis last whooping cough deaths were in 2008 and 2012.
We do believe that declining vaccination rates are impacting this, he told reporters on Sept. 29. Mississippi, as you know, scores very high with our rate of vaccination for our infants and school-aged children, but we dont score nearly as well with adults. And so, our concern is that adult Mississippians are not maintaining the pertussis immunity, which puts our babies at risk.
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Pertussis could linger anywhere between two to eight weeks in a person if left untreated, Edney said. In adults, pertussis is typically mild, and he said people usually think they have a common cold. People should quarantine for anywhere between six to 21 days if they have pertussis, he said.
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Read more: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-baby-dies-of-whooping-cough-the-states-first-pertussis-death-in-13-years/

riversedge
(78,100 posts)risk. Sure, they have the pleasure of not vaccinating --because they can just say NO,
Yet, they put their neighbor kids and kids at school at risk for the PREVENTABLE DISEASE.
DAME THESE SELFISH FOLKS MAKE ME SICK!

eppur_se_muova
(40,167 posts)vaccinated himself. OTHERS AROUND HIM weren't, so he caught it from someone who could have been protected from it if they'd just gotten their regular shots.
ClaudetteCC
(116 posts)progressoid
(52,052 posts)thanks.
Irish_Dem
(75,682 posts)BidenRocks
(2,306 posts)More child deaths to follow. Tis the season.
Vaccinate or go to jail for child endangerment!
Yeah, right.
0rganism
(25,342 posts)Yeah, we're gonna be seeing a lot more of this for the foreseeable future. Greatness!
ananda
(33,465 posts)My grandmother got smallpox and survived it without
scars because her doctor told her he had a special oil
which would prevent scarring, so of course it did
(placebo effect). She was lucky.
My dad got whooping cough when he was four and
survived it... but when he and my grandma described
it, I was really glad I had received the DPT vaccine.
I did get chicken pox and measles. Measles, for me,
was a nothingburger; but it gave my sister
encephalitis, which she eventually slept her way out of.
I saw what shingles did to my great aunt and both my
parents. It was horrible.
I was able to get all the shingles vaccines, thank goodness.
I really feel bad for the people who won't be able to get
vaccines that are so beneficial and life-saving, and I
guess we're in for a very hard bout of natural selection
and survival of the fittest... and it won't be pretty.
3catwoman3
(27,835 posts)Rhiannon12866
(244,103 posts)As did another child who was her friend and neighbor - before there was a vaccine.
ck4829
(37,128 posts)PortTack
(35,742 posts)IronLionZion
(50,026 posts)the P is for Pertussis. Sure 2 months is too young for the vaccine. But it means someone else around this baby had the infection. Less people vaccinated means more of these viruses are in circulation.