Mother in law won't get pertussis vaccine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have rolled my eyes at both of them.

If you want to be paranoid about something your baby might actually contract, then worry about RSV.

No kidding. Are we seriously freaking out about an 8-person "outbreak"!? Do you realize how many millions of people there are in this country?

RSV is so much more common, yet still not very common. Come on people, do some basic risk assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have rolled my eyes at both of them.

If you want to be paranoid about something your baby might actually contract, then worry about RSV.

No kidding. Are we seriously freaking out about an 8-person "outbreak"!? Do you realize how many millions of people there are in this country?

RSV is so much more common, yet still not very common. Come on people, do some basic risk assessment.

this sounds like the swine flu non event. I'm guessing some of these posters were running around looking for masks this time last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have rolled my eyes at both of them.

If you want to be paranoid about something your baby might actually contract, then worry about RSV.

No kidding. Are we seriously freaking out about an 8-person "outbreak"!? Do you realize how many millions of people there are in this country?

RSV is so much more common, yet still not very common. Come on people, do some basic risk assessment.

As of July, about 1500 people had been infected, with 700 more suspected cases.

OP, thanks for posting - my mom is coming from CA to help out with the baby for the first month the baby is here, and I'll ask her to make sure she her vaccines are up to date.

[Anonymous]

There is no outbreak on the East Coast and this vaccine isn't safe for people over 65. Just take a deep breath, ya'll will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

RSV not common? My first son got it twice before he was 18 months old (first infection at 4 months), and my second son got it at 6 months old. Both have moderate asthma that requires daily medication, and we went out of our way to try to reduce exposure to RSV. I think it is way more common than you want to admit.

[Anonymous]

Yes. You are overreacting. It's very possible that the vaccines we are getting here are completely worthless. Here is a couple facts that I have found:

• In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)

• In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You are overreacting. It's very possible that the vaccines we are getting here are completely worthless. Here is a couple facts that I have found:

• In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)

• In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)

This data is pretty old. Did you find anything more recent?

[Anonymous]

I'd personally love to know of the current outbreak, how many of them have been vaccinated and how many times. But that data isn't quite available to us yet.

Here's a more recent study (2001):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11740314

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if anyone knows how many illnesses actually constitute this outbreak?

I am also curious if the pediatrician, OB, delivery room nurses and other nurses at the hospital are current in their vaccines. OP, your baby is going to be exposed to dozens - maybe hundreds - of people in their first months of life who are not vaccinated. It seems really crazy to make this huge fuss about your in-laws, unless you are going to refuse to let anyone else (whose vaccination status is unknown to you) not hold the baby either. The good thing about pertussis is that it is hard to miss. If MIL is sick at all, obviously that would be the time to refuse to allow her access to your baby.

Is this true? In an newspaper article I read recently, the person had a cough for a couple of week that went undiagnosed-- assumed it was just allergies or a standard cold.

And the incubation period before symptoms manifest is fairly long.

I do think adults should get their boosters, but I would be curious as to why the OP's MIL does not want to get it, and factor that into my risk assessment. The chance of pertussis is very low, so if MI had a really good reason, i.e., age etc., then I think I would lighten up a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd personally love to know of the current outbreak, how many of them have been vaccinated and how many times. But that data isn't quite available to us yet.

Here's a more recent study (2001):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11740314

So the effectiveness of the full vaccination was 80%. That sounds pretty good. It said that less than the full 3 vacs for pertussis was a risk factor, but I couldn't discern what the difference in risk was. Can someone help interpret the stats for me? Was it odds of 5 to 1? Not sure if I'm reading that right. And it said "attack rate" was 17%. Does that mean overall that 17% of people exposed to pertussis acquired it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RSV not common? My first son got it twice before he was 18 months old (first infection at 4 months), and my second son got it at 6 months old. Both have moderate asthma that requires daily medication, and we went out of our way to try to reduce exposure to RSV. I think it is way more common than you want to admit.

I think (could be wrong) that poster was talking about whooping cough not being common. Totally agree about the RSV however. My son was hospitalized for 9 days because of it when he was 10 months old. It's a bad cold in adults, and pretty horrible in babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if anyone knows how many illnesses actually constitute this outbreak?

I am also curious if the pediatrician, OB, delivery room nurses and other nurses at the hospital are current in their vaccines. OP, your baby is going to be exposed to dozens - maybe hundreds - of people in their first months of life who are not vaccinated. It seems really crazy to make this huge fuss about your in-laws, unless you are going to refuse to let anyone else (whose vaccination status is unknown to you) not hold the baby either. The good thing about pertussis is that it is hard to miss. If MIL is sick at all, obviously that would be the time to refuse to allow her access to your baby.

Is this true? In an newspaper article I read recently, the person had a cough for a couple of week that went undiagnosed-- assumed it was just allergies or a standard cold.

In a baby, the cough is very distinct and easy to identify. In fact, there are sound bytes on the internet as to what it sounds like in a baby.

[Anonymous]

My MIL was just diagnosed with pertussis. She lives in a large apartment building in DC. She thought she had a cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have rolled my eyes at both of them.

If you want to be paranoid about something your baby might actually contract, then worry about RSV.

No kidding. Are we seriously freaking out about an 8-person "outbreak"!? Do you realize how many millions of people there are in this country?

RSV is so much more common, yet still not very common. Come on people, do some basic risk assessment.

this sounds like the swine flu non event. I'm guessing some of these posters were running around looking for masks this time last year.

Well, as a mother who did not worry about swine flu and ended up with a kid hospitalized from secondary pneumonia from the swine flu, I wish I had worried about it more. Don't think we need to belittle people to make a point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have rolled my eyes at both of them.

If you want to be paranoid about something your baby might actually contract, then worry about RSV.

No kidding. Are we seriously freaking out about an 8-person "outbreak"!? Do you realize how many millions of people there are in this country?

RSV is so much more common, yet still not very common. Come on people, do some basic risk assessment.

this sounds like the swine flu non event. I'm guessing some of these posters were running around looking for masks this time last year.

Well, as a mother who did not worry about swine flu and ended up with a kid hospitalized from secondary pneumonia from the swine flu, I wish I had worried about it more. Don't think we need to belittle people to make a point.

Exactly. No one ever thinks they'll be the ones to get it. Maybe it's the people who freak out who stop the spread? Maybe it's the people who were waiting in line for that swine vaccine who provided a herd immunity cushion for the rest of us? Same with whooping cough. I know 3 people who have had it in the past 6 months. I had never heard of anyone having it before. So - it starts somewhere. Just hope that it doesn't start in your home with your children. Nothing wrong with asking caregivers to protect your newborn. NOTHING.