By: Rong-Gong II, Los Angelos Times
25 October 2010
Whooping cough shot wasn’t tested on older people, but state says they should get it.
Some doctors are erroneously telling elderly patients that they cannot receive an inoculation for whooping cough, despite recommendations issued this summer by state health officials urging senior citizens to get vaccinated.
David Manuel Hernandez, 43, a Chicano studies assistant professor at UCLA, said his elderly parents, who are in their early 70s, had for weeks been unable to get the vaccines from their La Mirada physician. “My wife and I just had a baby and we are so worried about this,” Hernandez said.
For months, state health officials have been urging adolescents and adults — particularly those who are in contact with newborn babies — to get the Tdap vaccination, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
Newborns are at the highest risk for death from whooping cough.
The Tdap shot was licensed for use in adolescents and adults up to age 64 in 2005 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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