Federal data showing more Maine parents choosing not to vaccinate their children should worry us all.

That trend is responsible for a five-fold increase in the number of whooping cough cases in Maine since last year, most affecting children between 7 and 19 years of age.

Maine has recorded more than 411 cases so far in 2012, meaning that two out of every 1,000 children in Maine have had whooping cough, according to a story Saturday by the Bangor Daily News.

Pertussis is called whooping cough because of the “whoop” sound babies and children make as they struggle to inhale air after coughing. The exhausting coughing can last for up to six weeks and can be fatal for infants.

It is also preventable, so long as parents choose to have their children vaccinated.

And they are required to by law, but Maine is also one of 18 states that allows parents to exempt their children from vaccinations for medical, religious or philosophical reasons, according to the BDN story.

A previous generation of parents grew up convinced that vaccines protected children from serious diseases.

Many had experienced the polio epidemic of the early 1950s that left thousands of children in the U.S. ill or even crippled for life. In 1952 the U.S. experienced 58,000 cases of polio and, in 1953, 35,000 cases, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. 

Opinion polls found Americans feared two things most in the early 1950s, the atomic bomb and polio, so they eagerly lined their children up to receive the vaccines. Soon, polio was almost eradicated in the U.S.

Those children turned into the next generation of parents who then sustained very high levels of vaccination for their children.

Many of today’s parents, however, may not share that sense of urgency about vaccinations. Confusion also grew out of an article published in the medical journal The Lancet that connected MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine to autism.

The article was later found fraudulent and fully retracted by The Lancet, but the damage was done.

Still, an increasing number of parents in Maine and elsewhere choose not to have their children vaccinated as recommended by virtually all health-care experts.

Vaccines can have side effects, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risks in all cases are far less likely and serious than the danger of contracting the disease.

Parents are always protective of their children and their health. So they should consult reliable sources of information, such as the CDC, the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic websites and their own medical doctors before making a vaccination decision.

As the current outbreak of whooping cough shows, choosing not to vaccinate can lead to very serious consequences for children.

rrhoades@sunjournal.com

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.