Whooping cough vaccine loses punch

Whooping cough vaccine loses punch

NEW YORK

As the U.S. wrestles with its biggest whooping cough outbreak in decades, researchers appear to have zeroed in on the main cause: The safer vaccine that was introduced in the 1990s loses effectiveness much faster than previously thought.

A study published in Wednesday’s New England Journal of Medicine found that the protective effect weakens dramatically soon after a youngster gets the last of the five recommended shots around age 6.

The protection rate falls from about 95 percent to 71 percent within five years, said researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Research Center in Oakland, Calif.

The U.S. has had more than 26,000 whooping cough cases so far this year, including more than 10,000 in children age 7 to 10.

Methanol kills 19

PRAGUE, Czech Republic

At least 19 people are dead and 24 others hospitalized. Some of them have been blinded, while others have been induced into comas in the hope that doctors can save them.

All had drunk cheap vodka and rum laced with methanol, a toxic substance used to stretch alcohol on the black market and guarantee high profits for manufacturers.

The Czech Republic announced emergency measures Wednesday as the death toll from the methanol poisoning mounted, including two women age 28 and 21. Kiosks and markets were banned from selling spirits with more than 30 percent alcohol content, and police raided outlets nationwide. At 410 sites, they found 70 cases of illegal alcohol.

US poverty rate stays at record levels

WASHINGTON

The ranks of America’s poor remained stuck at record levels, although dwindling unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped stave off what experts had predicted would be the fourth rise in a row in the poverty rate.

With joblessness persistently high, the gap between rich and poor increased in the last year, according to two major census measures. Also, the median, or midpoint, household income was $50,054, 1.5 percent lower than 2010 and a second-straight decline.

Mo. lawmakers override veto

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.

Missouri lawmakers enacted new religious exemptions from insurance coverage of birth control Wednesday, overriding a gubernatorial veto and delivering a political rebuke to an Obama administration policy requiring insurers to cover contraception.

Although Missouri and 20 other states already had some sort of exemption from contraceptive coverage, Missouri’s newly expanded law appears to be the first in the nation directly rebutting the federal contraception mandate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and supporters of the law.

Few noncitizens in Fla. voter screening

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

Florida’s attempt to screen voter rolls for non-U.S. citizens is yielding a smaller number than state officials had anticipated.

The Florida Department of State announced Wednesday that it used a federal immigration database to verify 207 voters are not citizens. Earlier this year, state officials under Republican Gov. Rock Scott had said they suspected more than 2,600 voters were ineligible and had asked election supervisors to purge those on the list.

State officials, however, said the screening process still was a success because it yielded some ineligible voters.

Associated Press