With the highest rates of whooping cough in 63 years and reports of flu starting coming in throughout the USA, Californian and other states' health authorities are urging people to get vaccinated. With apparently only 1 in 3 Americans getting a flu shot last year, public health experts are beginning to show some concern about the coming months. Fewer than 1 in every 13 adults got vaccinated against whooping cough last year.

America had nearly got rid of whooping cough completely some thirty years ago. Since the 1980s, numbers have been steadily rising. Experts say that the main reason is a drop in vaccination rates. All adults are susceptible to catching pertussis (whooping cough) when their childhood shots start wearing off.

Small babies are susceptible to the complications of whooping cough, that is why 50% of those infected have to be hospitalized. Whooping cough is much less dangerous for an adult than for an infant.

22% of parents refused to have their kids vaccinated in 2003; in 2008 the percentage shot up to 39%. Nobody is sure what the percentage is now. In some cases, low adult vaccination rates are due to lack of awareness; many adults simply don't know they should have their booster shots. It is something doctors should start reminding their patients about more thoroughly, health officials say.

If there is a large pool of adults (and children) without immunity, the likelihood of whooping cough epidemics that spread rapidly grows, which in turn puts babies at risk of complications and death. So far this year 10 babies have died of whooping cough in California, they were all less than three months old when symptoms began.

A baby can start receiving the whooping cough vaccine (DTaP) at the age of two months, and the flu shot from 6 months.

So far this year there have been 6,795 reports of confirmed, probable and suspect cases of pertussis in California, 164 new cases were reported over the last seven days. This is the highest number since 1947 when there were 9,394 cases. California's previous peak was 3,182 in 2005.

59% of all hospitalized pertussis patients this year were aged up to three months, and 76% up to six months. 76% of babies less than six months old who were hospitalized were Hispanic.

Of the ten fatalities so far, 9 were Hispanic.