The California Department of Public Health on July 17 confirmed the state's first whooping cough death in an infant since 2016.
About 50 to 200 infants in California are hospitalized each year due to whooping cough. In 2006, two babies died from the illness.
"Any infant death due to pertussis is preventable through maternal vaccination," James Watt, MD, chief of the department's Division of Communicable Disease Control told CNN.
Due to confidentiality, the Division of Communicable Disease Control is not releasing details of the case, the infant's identity or information on the mother's vaccination status.
The CDC recommends mothers receive the whooping cough vaccine in the third trimester to protect infants until they are old enough to receive the own vaccine at 2 months old.
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