Vaccinate your child. As 89-One WEMU's Andrew Cluley reports, That's the message from health officials after a record number of cases of Pertussis were recorded in 2013.
2013 was a record year, though not one to be happy about.
There were more than one-thousand cases of Pertussis, or whooping cough, recorded in Michigan last year. 200 of those cases were in Washtenaw County.
Additionally, the five recorded cases of measles in Michigan were the most since 1999.
Washtenaw County Public Health Epidemiologist Laura Bowman says vaccinating children goes a long way in combating these afflictions, and helps prevent spread of the illness to those medically unable to receive the vaccine.
Bowman says an increasing number of people are choosing not to vaccinate their children and that contributes to the increased number of illness.