Whopping Cough Research Paper

Pertussis, or whopping cough is a very serious respiratory disease (CDC Prevention). Whopping cough can affect all ages, but can be fatal for children under a year old.
Whopping cough has many common cold symptoms such as fever, runny nose and coughing (CDC Prevention). The textbook explains how Whopping Cough got its name from its common symptom of a breath that resembles a “whoop” sound. Pertussis can affect people of all ages, but can be very serious, even deadly, for babies less than a year old.

The best prevention for this disease is being vaccinated. Due to the political reasons many parents have opted out of vaccinating their children which has caused an increase in diseases that can be prevented. “According to the state health department, about 9,500 New Jersey school children skipped receiving vaccines for the 2015-16 school year. Under state law, children are permitted to opt out of receiving vaccinations for religious reasons” (Zaremba). By parents choosing not to vaccinate their children they are risking their child’s health as well as other children’s health. This choice to not vaccinate also makes diseases once thought to be cured comeback as outbreaks.
“Before routine vaccinations began in 1968, mumps was a common illness in infants, children and young adults, infecting more than 200,000 people each year. In children, mumps is considered a mild disease but it can pose complications in adults” (Miller). The vaccine to treat mumps is MMR (CDC Prevention). This vaccine has decreased mumps by about 99% but outbreaks are still