Re: Immunizations

As the granddaughter of Louis W. Sauer, the doctor who first developed the whooping cough vaccine in the l920s, I was interested to read the statistics provided in Rachel Rosenbaum’s recent article in the Appeal Democrat.

I went to the Center for Disease Control website to find more information. I have been following with interest and concern the current trend of parents to withhold immunity from their children. Whooping cough is a highly communicable disease that killed hundreds of thousands of mostly young children from 1922 (first recorded data at CDC).

Historically, there was a sharp reduction in the number of U.S. cases beginning in 1948, another sharp decline beginning in 1965, then a doubling of reported cases beginning in 2004, increasing once again to the l960’s levels.

I wonder what my grandfather would think to hear that our children in 2017 are increasingly vulnerable to this vaccine-preventable disease, which is usually associated with developing countries. There is ample information available for those who wish to inform themselves about communicable diseases like pertussis. Details about early vaccination and necessity of periodic revaccination are available at the CDC.

After reading, I looked at my own medical records to confirm that, as an adult, I am immunized with all vaccinations, to protect myself and others from contagious diseases like whooping cough, which still causes 195,000 deaths in children each year worldwide.

Andrea Ickes-Dunbar