ATLANTA (AP) - An expert panel is urging every expecting mother
to get a shot preventing whooping cough, preferably in the last
three months of her pregnancy to help protect her baby. The
advice follows a frightening resurgence of the dreaded childhood
disease. More than 32,000 cases, including 16 deaths, have been
reported so far this year, and 2012 is on track to be the
nation's worst year for whooping cough since 1959. It's only the
second time a vaccine has been advised for all women during
pregnancy. Flu shots were first recommended for them in the
1990s. The new advice was approved in a vote Wednesday by the
government's vaccine advisory panel. Federal health officials
usually adopt the group's guidance and promote it to doctors and
the public. Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious
disease. Its name comes from the sound children make as they
gasp for breath. Despite long-standing childhood immunizations,
cases have been climbing in the past decade. Most are infants
two months and younger