California's whooping cough crisis, Latinos affected disproportionately

December 19, 2014 2:37 PM

"'It really speaks to the lack of access to health insurance that's particularly predominant within the Latino community,' says Sarah de Guia, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, an advocacy group. Latinos make up 62 percent of the uninsured, she says, either because they can't afford to pay for health insurance, or because they're afraid that signing up for coverage will expose family members who aren't lawfully present in the U.S." California Whooping Cough Infections Run High Among Latino Babies, NPR.

More about pertussis:

"Although cases of pertussis have dropped dramatically in the United States since the introduction of the pertussis vaccine, the disease has caused widespread outbreaks in recent years. In 2012, nearly 50,000 cases of pertussis were reported in the United States, the most cases since 1955. Twenty pertussis deaths were reported in 2012. Fifteen of those deaths occurred in infants too young to have received the vaccine.

Pertussis also remains a major problem in the developing world. The World Health Organization estimates that pertussis caused 89,000 deaths worldwide in 2012.

"The tendency of pertussis to be milder in adults, sometimes escaping diagnosis, further complicates disease transmission. The coughing associated with the disease may be mild enough in an adult case to be written off as a simple cold. The adult, however, will still be contagious and can easily spread the disease to infants too young to be vaccinated, or to individuals whose immunity has waned."

From January 2, 2014 – New California Law Requires Doctor’s Note For Vaccine Exemptions… But There’s An Out, by Claire Trageser for KPBS:

"But there's a way around this new requirement.

"The new form also has a box that says the family belongs to a religion that prohibits 'seeking medical advice or treatment.' If parents check this box, they don't need a doctor's signature to exempt their children from vaccinations."

September 2, 2014 – Plunge in kindergartners' vaccination rate worries health officials, LA Times:

"California parents are deciding against vaccinating their kindergarten-age children at twice the rate they did seven years ago, a fact public health experts said is contributing to the reemergence of measles across the state and may lead to outbreaks of other serious diseases.

"The percentage of kindergartens in which at least 8% of students are not fully vaccinated because of personal beliefs has more than doubled as well, according to data on file with the state. That threshold is significant because communities must be immunized at a high rate to avoid widespread disease outbreaks. It is a concept known as herd immunity, and for measles and whooping cough at least 92% of kids need to be immune, experts say."

December 8, 2014 – NPR's Morning Edition, Health Shots: When It Comes To Day Care, Parents Want All Children Vaccinated, Patti Neighmond, NPR News. Transcript.

Further links

Pertussis (whooping cough) page – includes vaccination recommendations, data, recommendations, fact sheets, and more. (California Department of Public Health)
Fact sheets in PDF format, in English and in Spanish, at the Contra Costa Health Services website.
Vaccine-preventable outbreaks map – just tick 'whooping cough' and apply to see the map results. (Council on Foreign Relations, wikipedia entry here.)
Why vaccinate? – The History of Vaccines
See also: Misconceptions about Vaccines, from the same website.
PDF summary reports of number of cases of pertussis in California., latest report from November 2014 (CA.gov)
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (About page).

Previously: Vaccination map of Los Angeles schools

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (15 comments total)

Fifteen completely avoidable yet personally unable to be avoided deaths in 2012. This has gone on long enough. Time to bring the fucking nutjobs in on conspiracy charges.
posted by Talez at 3:12 PM on December 19, 2014 [13 favorites]

"The new form also has a box that says the family belongs to a religion that prohibits 'seeking medical advice or treatment.' If parents check this box, they don't need a doctor's signature to exempt their children from vaccinations."

I realize there are various religions that prohibit or restrict medical treatment, but are there actually any that prevent getting medical advice? That seems like a ridiculously large loophole.
posted by jaguar at 3:59 PM on December 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hell, I've had a nurse tell me vaccines were dangerous and I should not get them.
posted by ryanrs at 4:27 PM on December 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

"The highest rates of whooping cough are found in the Bay Area counties of Sonoma, Napa and Marin, which also have some of the highest rates of parents who opt out of vaccinating their children."
In July, the state was saying that Latinos have the highest percentage of vaccinations (San Jose Mercury News).
"DPH Deputy Director Gil Chavez said that the Latinos have "a culture of vaccination" and are less likely to file personal belief exemptions.
James Cherry, a professor of pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine, said Latino residents also "are more likely to go along with the general health policy recommendations of doctors they see.""
Santa Clara County offers free vaccinations. So does LA County, and these clinics don't ask for proof of citizenship.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:27 PM on December 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hmmm. I wonder if I can start a religion that compels people to seek out medical advice and treatment? Maybe I can get underwritten by the managed care people.

And it's not just young kids coming down with diseases that we can treat--there's an epidemic of mumps going around the NHL right now. If professional athletes with trainers and staff looking after them are getting sick, not sure how more at-risk folks are expected to cope.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:52 PM on December 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hell, I've had a nurse tell me vaccines were dangerous and I should not get them.


Then that nurse should be reported to her professional body and should not be a nurse anymore.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:08 PM on December 19, 2014 [32 favorites]

Man, as a life-long asthmatic, every time I hear those kids struggling to breath I can't imagine what kind of parent opens the door to a disease like that.
posted by sneebler at 7:17 PM on December 19, 2014

Man, as a life-long asthmatic, every time I hear those kids struggling to breath I can't imagine what kind of parent opens the door to a disease like that.

Some of them are victims and some of them are victimizers.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:27 PM on December 19, 2014

reported to her professional body

Yeah, but it was in a social situation, not at her job, so I just rolled my eyes and said "wow, that's pretty ignorant". That really pissed her off, so I figure we're even.
posted by ryanrs at 8:14 PM on December 19, 2014 [8 favorites]

Pan-Ethnic Health Network

As someone living where there is universal healthcare, the idea of ethnicity having anything to do with access boggles the mind.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:29 PM on December 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

It probably shouldn't. Canada has plenty of its own issues with ethnicity influencing health outcomes! It's a recognized problem.
posted by Justinian at 9:34 PM on December 19, 2014 [8 favorites]

As someone living where there is universal healthcare, the idea of ethnicity having anything to do with access boggles the mind.

Economic barriers are certainly a huge problem, but there are other barriers to culturally competent care that aren't automatically solved by universal healthcare. (And even universal healthcare doesn't solve all the economic barriers.)
posted by jaguar at 9:36 PM on December 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

The last chart on the link for the summary report on cases in California for 2014 is very interesting. While the rate of cases in children < 1 year is disproportionately high among Hispanics, for all other age ranges it is disproportionately high among whites and much lower among blacks and Asians, with Hispanics being somewhat in between. So while I certainly am in support of improving access to health care for Hispanics by reducing economic, legal, and language barriers, in some ways that seems to be addressing a symptom of the disease, when the cause (at least in the US) is white antivaxers. It pisses me off to no end that certain political factions get all riled up about disease-bearing illegal immigrants, when many countries in Latin America actually have better vaccine compliance rates than the U.S. and lower incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
posted by drlith at 6:04 AM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

drlith--While I agree with you, the headline of this FPP seems to say exactly the opposite, as does the linked NPR story. So which is it? Latinos vaccinate early and often or they don't, due to economic and cultural barriers?
posted by Ideefixe at 9:54 AM on December 20, 2014

Momentary derail: I almost fell over when I saw Sarah de Guia's name right here on the blue. Sarah and I went to law school together (Santa Clara University School of Law '11), and during our 3L year, we were co-chairs of the Public Interest & Social Justice Coalition. She won a writing prize for a paper that examined federal and state language access policies and how they affected reproductive health care for Latinas. She is passionate about her work, and I'm so glad that she's getting her message out. (She's also a lovely, kind person.)

/derail
posted by bakerina at 9:57 AM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]