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Louisiana took months to sound alarm after two babies died in whooping cough outbreak
By Rosemary Westwood, WWNO When there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, state health officials typically take certain steps to alert residents and issue public updates about the growing threat. That’s standard practice, public health and infectious disease experts told KFF Health News and NPR. The goal is to keep as many other vulnerable people as possible from getting sick and to remind the public about the benefits of vaccinations. But in Louisiana this year, public health officials appeared to have not followed that playbook during the state’s worst whooping cough outbreak in 35 years.
