Most Georgia infants get the vaccines they require to help protect them from pertussis -- a highly contagious disease better known as whooping cough.

While Georgia has not observed high rates of the disease so far this year, outbreaks in other states are prompting public health officials to say another time that a vaccine for the baby isn’t enough. They advise all adults and teens who come into contact with an infant to roll up their sleeve and get a vaccine, too.

The advisory applies not just to parents, but to adolescent siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and day care employees anyone who is going to spend time with the baby.

“What we want to have people do is make a cocoon of immunity around the infant,” said Jeff Diamond, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



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