WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA)-- Newresearch reinforces the benefits of D-TaP booster shots.
The effectiveness of the D-TaP vaccine in the fight against pertussis, or whooping cough, wanes over time. The vaccine is 98 percent effective 1-year aftera child receives all five doses of D-TaP. The vaccine is 70 percent effective after 5 years.
The study is published in the November 28th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is recommended for all children to get a series offive D-TaP shots starting at 2-months old ending before the child starts school.
A booster shot is recommended at 11 years of age as the effectiveness of the vaccine to fight whooping cough lessens.
TheCDC launched a study on the lasting power of the D-TaP vaccine after California, in 2010, had the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years.
Inova Cares Clinic for ChildrenPediatrician, Jessica Mumme, MD says, "So as the children are in schools and their immunity is waning they could contract pertussis and spread it to other children in the schools."
Another serious danger includes the groups of children who have not been vaccinated at all.
Dr. Mumme says, "There are pockets of unvaccinated children all over the country. Right here in Virginia ther are pockets of unvaccinated children, people who don't believe in vaccines for various reasons."
Dr. Mumme adds, "We have a much higher index of suspicion for pertussis in the last (few)years than we did before and if a child is coming in with a severe cough or any of the markers we have for pertussis, we are testing them."