A 3-week-old infant in San Joaquin County has died of Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. The state is experiencing an epidemic of the disease. There were more than 11,000 cases in California last year.
Alvaro Garza is the public health officer in San Joaquin County. He says it's heartbreaking to care for infants with whooping cough.
“You see babies 2, 3, 4 months or a little bit older,” Garza said. “They're coughing and they just can't catch their breath."
Pertussis comes in cycles of three to five years. The last statewide epidemic was in 2010. That's why Garza recommends that people keep their immunization up to date.
"If adults are going to be around babies, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc, they should make sure they have had what's called a Tdap which includes pertussis,” he said.
As of last month there were nearly 500 new cases of whooping cough reported statewide in 2015.
Most North State counties had pertussis rates below the statewide average last year.
Trinity and Tehama were the outliers. In Trinity nearly 4 out of every 10,000 residents contracted the disease. Tehama’s rate was nearly double the state’s average with nearly 6 out of 10,000 residents being infected with pertussis.
This story was produced by Capital Public Radio with information contributed by Sarah Bohannon, NSPR.