This summer, a Center for Disease Control panel started recommending all expectant parents and grandparents get a vaccine to prevent spreading a disease that’s resurging in newborns.
Mia Lane is almost 5 now and has no problem keeping up with her sister playing a dance game.
But as a newborn she became very ill with whooping cough. Her mother, Candace Lane, says she was hospitalized in isolation for 18 days.
“It started to get like she was taking a deep breath and coughing really bad and it had a funny sound to it," Lane said. "It was like she couldn’t breathe.”
Health
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis is an extremely contagious disease.
How did Mia get it?
“Definitely my mother ended up being the culprit” Lane said.
Doctors found newborns were getting this illness primarily from health care workers and relatives.
“Newborns get the vaccine but they’re not fully protected for six months, maybe even 12 months,” explained Dr. Jeffrey Rosen of PrimeCare Coral Gables. “Among family members the most common person to transmit it was the mother."
A vaccine known as Tap, which combines tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis, has been recommended for older adults for a while. Now it’s recommended for expecting mothers to get this immunization, either in the third trimester or right after giving birth.
Adults who have close contact with infants need it, too.
Some adults also might need to have another common childhood combination vaccine - measles, mumps, and rubella.
To find out what you need take the CDC Adult Immunization Quiz. You can print the results and take it to you doctor.
