whooping cough

The widely publicized measles outbreak linked to California theme parks appears to have made parents more confident about vaccine safety and benefits, a national poll finds.

Effectiveness of the vaccine within one year of the final booster was 73 percent. But it fell to 34 percent in two to four years, an analysis of a Washington state epidemic found.

California lets kindergartners start school as long as they've had the first dose of all required vaccines. But some schools aren't tracking whether such kids end up getting all the doses they need.

The pressure, doctors say, is mostly coming from other parents who don't want their infants exposed to measles, whooping cough or other serious illnesses in the pediatric waiting room.

Public health officials in California are trying to understand why Latino babies are contracting whooping cough at much higher rates than other babies.