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.
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