Panel: All Adults Should Get Whooping Cough Vaccine

On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a federal advisory panel, voted to recommend that all adults in the U.S. get vaccinated against whooping cough.

Since a whooping cough vaccine for adults and adolescents was first licensed in 2005, the group has continued to add age groups to the populations it recommends receive the vaccine. In 2010, they added elderly people who spend a lot of time around infants to that group. Wednesday's recommendation now means that all adults should receive at least one dose of the vaccine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can be fatal in rare cases.

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