Vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough and measles can have a devastating impact on a family or community and officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.

Officials say over 50 people were reported to have measles and preliminary data from the CDC reports over 41,000 cases of whooping cough in the U.S. including 17 deaths last year.

Officials add that most of these deaths were in children younger than 1 years old with last year considered to be the highest number of whooping cough cases in any one year in the US since 1955.

Children are recommended to have the appropriate immunizations by age two in order to protect them from 14 serious childhood diseases.

For more information about vaccinations, contact the Hopkinsville-Christian County Health Department at 270-887-4160.
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