Outbreak of disease not leading to vaccinations

A whooping cough outbreak in the province's south is growing but not enough to convince vaccination skeptics to change their ways, an Alberta Health Services physician said Friday.

In the past three weeks, the number of cases linked to one outbreak of the potentially deadly disease, formally known as pertussis, has gone from 17 to 92 in an area encompassing Coaldale, the County of Lethbridge and Fort Macleod.

In total, there were 113 whooping cough cases in AHS's South Zone, with one hospitalization among them.

Its rapid spread hasn't made much of an impression in a region where immunization rates are low and skepticism over vaccines high, said Dr. Karin Goodison.

“It's accepted,” she said of the situation. “We present information and people have to make decisions for themselves.”

Among the whooping cough cases, 84 per cent of patients weren't immunized, said Goodison.

“Those not immunized impact the immunized population as well — the vaccine isn't 100 per cent effective, it tends to wane,” she said.

Reluctance to be inoculated ranges from peer pressure, to fear of side-effects, to belief vaccines aren't natural to problems with access to them, said Goodison.

AHS, she said, is continuing its multimedia efforts to encourage the population to be vaccinated, and to stay home if ill.

It's particularly important for pregnant women in their third trimester to receive the vaccine, but adults and children are also encouraged, said the physician.

So far this year, there have been about 270 cases of whooping cough in Alberta.