Whooping cough is spreading nationwide at the highest levels since 2014. There have been more than 16,000 cases this year — more than four times as many compared to the same time last year — and two confirmed deaths. And experts are concerned that the outbreak could worsen in the fall and winter months.

“More children are going back to school now, [which leads to] greater exposure,” said Dr. Eric Chow, the chief of epidemiology and immunization at the Seattle and King County public health agency. “We’re coming up on the kind of winter season when people are spending more time indoors with other people.”

Read more at NPR.

Believe it or not, living until age five used to be difficult. And it wasn’t that long ago. In the early 1900s, 30% of all deaths in the U.S. occurred in children under five, according to data. Thankfully, that number has since declined sharply. In 1999, 1.4% of deaths in the U.S. were in children under age five—still a tragedy, but the significant progress is important and, in large part, because of vaccines.

About 2.5 million deaths in children under age five were prevented because of measles, polio and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines, the CDC reports. 

Read more at Parade.

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Tuesday.

The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3 percent, up from 3 percent the year before. Meanwhile, 92.7 percent of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95 percent, the coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

The changes may seem slight but are significant, translating to about 80,000 kids not getting vaccinated, health officials say.

Read more at PBS.

On Monday, the Director of Infection Prevention for UCHealth said vaccination rates have been down since the COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation about vaccines is the main cause.

According to health officials, post-pandemic vaccination rates have yet to reach herd immunity, meaning a large enough amount of people have vaccines to create immunity in the community. The main viruses of focus during flu season are Covid-19, Influenza, and RSV.

Officials say these low rates are especially true for young kids and students. The target percentage is 95% but for K12 students across Colorado vaccine rates were at 90.1%. One of the lowest school districts in the state was Colorado Springs School District 11 which had rates of 85%.

Read more at KKTV.

The number of kids dying from influenza in the 2023-2024 season has set a new record for a regular flu season, after one new death was reported last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There were 200 pediatric flu-related deaths in the 2023-2024 season, compared to the previous high of 199 during the 2019-2022 season.

About 80% of the kids that died from flu this season were not fully vaccinated against influenza, CDC data shows. Nearly half of the children had at least one pre-existing medical condition.

Read more at ABC.

Starting Monday, Sept. 30, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will send text and email reminders to more than 880,000 Coloradans.

CDPHE will send reminders to Coloradans aged 65 and older, whose records in the Colorado Immunization Information System (CIIS) show they may be due for their annual flu vaccine.

The text message will come from 45778, while the emails will come from cdphe.vaccine.registry@state.co.us.

Read more at Fox 21.

Now is the time to get vaccinated against respiratory viruses like the flu and COVID-19.

Vaccines are available by appointment at pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, and at your doctor’s office.

Garfield County Public Health is also offering walk-in clinics for both shots in Glenwood Springs every Wednesday in October, and in Rifle on every Thursday. Those clinics will also be open on the first two Wednesdays of November in Glenwood, and the first two Thursdays of November in Rifle.

Carrie Godes with Garfield County Public Health said it’s also a good time to get your kids caught up on their regular vaccine schedule, like measles and whooping cough, if they fell behind during COVID.

Read more at Aspen Public Radio.

Denver Public Schools has kicked off a free vaccination campaign this school year — one that uses staff who speak the languages and are familiar with the cultures of the students they serve.

The campaign began this month, Hispanic Heritage Month, targeting schools, some of them with fewer than 60 percent of children vaccinated. Colorado as a whole ranks 34th in the nation for children 35 months of age who’ve completed recommended vaccines.

The program — called One School, One Vaccine at a Time — works closely with school districts and providers to address vaccine hesitancy and ensure access to routine childhood immunizations. The partnership includes the district, State Department of Public Health and the Environment, and Julissa Soto, the CEO of Latino Health Equity Consulting.

Read more at Denverite.

A new COVID variant is spreading rapidly and could soon become the dominant variant around the globe. The variant, called XEC, was first detected in Germany in August and appears to have a growth advantage over other circulating variants – but it is not a radically different variant.

XEC is what’s known as a “recombinant variant”. Recombinants can occur naturally when a person is simultaneously infected with two different COVID variants.

XEC is the product of a recombination (exchanged pieces of genetic material between two variants) between the KS.1.1 variant and the KP.3.3 variant. These two parent variants are closely related, having both evolved from JN.1, which was the dominant variant around the world at the start of 2024.

Read more at Gavi.

The number of whooping cough cases have more than quadrupled in the U.S. since last year, according to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.

Infectious diseases experts attribute the surge in cases of whooping cough — also known as pertussis — to a dip in vaccination rates that began during the pandemic.

“Children during COVID did not see their health care providers and they may have done some telemedicine, but we can’t vaccinate through the computer,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “And we haven’t gotten everyone caught up yet back to their routine vaccination levels.”

Read more at NPR.