In the year 2010, the deadliest American outbreak of whooping cough in fifty years occurred in California. Ten infants lost their lives as a result of this horrifying incident, and many more contracted the disease and suffered serious symptoms. When we picture low vaccination rates, we form a visual picture of some far-off developing country that lacks resources and education, but we don’t consider that often this is a reality in places much closer to home. In fact, vaccination rates in Los Angeles are lower than those in South Sudan, where civil war prevents families from vaccinating. The belief that life-threatening diseases, such as meningitis, have been eradicated and are no longer dangerous has created a sense of complacency among parents in the Western world, and it’s because of this that several of these same Western nations have been seeing the resurrection of conditions that had been gone for quite a while.
Vaccination in the Western World
Vaccination in the Western World
Vaccination in the Western World
In the year 2010, the deadliest American outbreak of whooping cough in fifty years occurred in California. Ten infants lost their lives as a result of this horrifying incident, and many more contracted the disease and suffered serious symptoms. When we picture low vaccination rates, we form a visual picture of some far-off developing country that lacks resources and education, but we don’t consider that often this is a reality in places much closer to home. In fact, vaccination rates in Los Angeles are lower than those in South Sudan, where civil war prevents families from vaccinating. The belief that life-threatening diseases, such as meningitis, have been eradicated and are no longer dangerous has created a sense of complacency among parents in the Western world, and it’s because of this that several of these same Western nations have been seeing the resurrection of conditions that had been gone for quite a while.