Latino Infants Disproportionately Affected in California Whooping Cough Outbreak

Sixty percent of infants affected by this year's whooping cough outbreak in California are Latino, according to public health officials. Gil Chavez, deputy director of the state Department of Public Health, said, "Hispanics have larger household sizes, and there may be cultural practices around visiting new infants that increase the number of contacts." Sarah de Guia, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, added that the disproportionate rate of infected Latino infants "really speaks to the lack of access to health insurance that's particularly predominant within the Latino community."

• "Whooping Cough Infections Unusually High Among Latino Babies" (Dembosky, "State of Health," KQED, 12/18/14).