Alberta, Canada: 2012 Whooping cough outbreaks

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Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/...168/story.html

Whooping cough makes its return in Calgary
MDs urging pertussis vaccinations
By Amanda Stephenson, Calgary Herald May 12, 2012


A whooping cough outbreak in southern Alberta has medical professionals emphasizing the importance of childhood vaccinations.

Twenty-six cases of per-tussis, commonly known as whooping cough, have been confirmed since January.

Cases have appeared in Medicine Hat, Taber, Vauxhall, Bow Island and Raymond....

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Re: Alberta, Canada: 2012 Whooping cough outbreaks

Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/...017/story.html

Alberta?s new top doctor issues vaccination plea amid whooping cough outbreak
By Jamie Komarnicki, Calgary Herald June 18, 2012

CALGARY - As southern Alberta deals with a whooping cough outbreak that?s sent four tots ? including two infants ? to hospital, the province?s new top doctor urged the public not to become complacent about vaccinations...

...Whooping cough vaccines are offered free to all Alberta newborns as part of the routine childhood immunization program, but immunization rates dropped to 48 per cent in some towns where the disease has been recorded, Suttorp said...

It?s ?worrisome? that the province had to take the unusual step of opening special clinics to fight the disease?s spread, Talbot said...

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Re: Alberta, Canada: 2012 Whooping cough outbreaks

Source: http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/fron...eak-62012.html

Whooping cough outbreak
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:01 Kuhl, Nick
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Nick Kuhl
Lethbridge Herald
nkuhl@lethbridgeherald.com

Alberta Health Services will open special adult immunization clinics Thursday in an attempt the curb an outbreak of whooping cough in southern Alberta.
The targeted communities are Fort Macleod, Picture Butte, Coaldale, Raymond, Taber, Vauxhall and Bow Island, based on AHS surveillance data on where disease has been seen and where low immunization rates persist...

...In the past six months, 36 confirmed cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis - a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable, violent coughing - have been reported...

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Re: Alberta, Canada: 2012 Whooping cough outbreaks

Source: http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/07/20...whooping-cough



Baby dies from whooping cough
By Jenna McMurray ,Calgary Sun
First posted: Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:08 PM MDT | Updated: Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:16 PM MDT


The grieving family of a baby girl who died after contracting a deadly disease is speaking out about the importance of immunizations.

Little Harper Whitehead was born May 22, said her aunt Dani Whitehead in Lethbridge Thursday.

But what the newborn?s family thought was a cold turned out to be pertussis ? whooping cough...

...Alberta Health Services says only one to three cases of pertussis are reported in the South Zone each year, but there have already been about 40 cases reported in 2012.

An outbreak was declared in the zone in March...

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Re: Alberta, Canada: 2012 Whooping cough outbreaks

Source: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/healt...299/story.html

Simons: Old-fashioned killer puts Alberta children at risk
By Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal July 25, 2012 4:31 PM


EDMONTON - Human nature is peculiar. When a ?new? infectious disease like H1N1 erupts on the world stage, it makes major headlines. People demand vaccines. They line up for hours to be vaccinated.

When an old-fashioned killer like pertussis ? a.k.a. whooping cough ? returns, people don?t get so excited. Worse, they sometimes turn their backs on modern science, to indulge in Internet-fuelled conspiracy theories...

...Southern Alberta is in the grips of an ugly whooping cough outbreak. There have been 42 reported cases in the region in the last few months. The zone usually logs one to three cases a year.

As of Tuesday, the Edmonton region had seen 32 pertussis cases; in all of 2011, there were just 18.

A baby from southern Alberta, Harper Whitehead, recently died of the disease...