Prevent Whooping Cough and Save Two Lives with One Shot at Walgreens


This post is brought to you by Walgreens. All opinions are our own.

With the Walgreens Get a Shot. Give a Shot®. program, you can help save two lives at once when you get a whooping cough vaccine! Find out more about whopping cough and how it can affect your baby.

Ever wish you could do more to help children in developing nations but feel like you’re limited because of your budget? I know I do. I watch the news stories of kids suffering from outbreaks of preventable diseases and feel utterly helpless.

Walgreens, in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, makes it easier to help. With the “Get a Shot. Give a Shot” program at Walgreens you can help save two lives at once when you get your whooping cough vaccine. Now that’s something to feel pretty good about!

What is Whooping Cough?

Whooping cough is one incredibly contagious and nasty bug that can send your baby straight to the hospital. By now you should know that I’m not an alarmist. I don’t go around yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.” I didn’t caution everyone to freak out about Ebola, H1N1 or any of other trending media diseases. Pertussis, aka whooping cough, is different.

It’s NOT a trendy media-hyped disease. It’s been around for a long time. We’ve also had a vaccine for a long time. Despite the widespread availability of a vaccine, whooping cough outbreaks have increased in recent years in my area.

Whooping cough is a disease that quite literally takes your breath away. The main symptom is a violent cough that makes breathing difficult. That’s where the “whooping” comes in, from the sound you make as you try to get oxygen to your deprived lungs. Whooping cough spreads like wildfire, transmitting through droplets from coughing and sneezing, sometimes before you even know you have it.

Who Needs the Whooping Cough Vaccine?

Everyone should be vaccinated against whopping cough, but it’s especially important for infants, pregnant women and those who spend a lot of time around infants. While whooping cough poses a potential threat to any age group, babies in particular face the greatest risk of serious complications, including death when contracted within the first six months.

The first DTaP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) isn’t given until about two months. That’s why it’s so important to make sure everyone around your baby is protected. Getting the whooping cough vaccine in your 3rd trimester also helps pass protection to your baby.

Get Immunized at Walgreens to Help Save Even More Lives

As I mentioned earlier, when you go to Walgreens for your whooping cough immunizations, you’ll also help save lives of children in need across the world through the Walgreens Get a Shot. Give a Shot®. program, a partnership with the United Nations Foundations Shot@Life campaign. As the name implies, when you get a vaccine (other than the flu vaccine), Walgreens donates a vaccine to a child in need.

Aside from the social good you’ll be doing through that program, Walgreens is just an incredibly convenient option. They offer the whooping cough vaccine whenever the pharmacy is open, no appointment necessary. They have industry awards from major medical institutions, including the CDC and AMA and over 27,000 trained healthcare professionals, so you know you’re in good hands. When those hands are holding a shot, that’s pretty important!

Disclaimer: Donation currently valid for non-flu vaccinations. Aggregate donation of up to $1 million. Vaccines subject to availability. State-, age- and health-related restrictions may apply.

Do you have any experience with whooping cough? What would you tell someone to convince them that the vaccine is important?

 

 

 

 

 

24 thoughts on “Prevent Whooping Cough and Save Two Lives with One Shot at Walgreens”

  1. I can’t even imagine seeing a baby in pain because of whooping cough! Whenever I’m blessed with children I’ll definitely look into all the vaccinations and develop my own opinion, but thanks for providing this information… definitely something to think about!

  2. I always see commercials for whooping cough and it’s so scary. I’m glad that you shared more information on what it really is. I remember my Lamaze teacher really telling us about it. I’m so glad that there are vaccines to protect babies inc they are so vulnerable.

  3. Every time I see those commercials for whooping cough prevention, they freak me out. The sounds those poor kids make – they’re so scary! It’s great that Walgreens gives those vaccinations – I had no idea, and I was even more ignorant that pregnant women should get the shot as well! I will have to keep that in mind when I get pregnant!

  4. I was definitely aware of whopping cough prior to this post but I didn’t know it affected so many and the risks it had! How wonderful modern medicine is that now we have vaccines! Thank you so much for sharing about it and its great that Walgreens is offering a shot! I learned so much!! Will also share.

  5. I never knew about how dangerous Whooping Cough was until I became a mom. I’m so glad that vaccines are available for parents and anyone in contact with kids. It is such a great thing that Walgreens is helping out people who need it.

  6. I didn’t know much about Whooping cough until reading the information. And I had no idea that Walgreens offered vaccines against it. I did not know that whooping cough was so contagious.

  7. It is so scary when little ones get sick with something like whooping cough!! We have had some good size breakouts here of whooping cough in Washington! This is great vaccine information for any parent.

  8. The get a shot, give a shot program is such a great idea. I love it when corporations who benefit from doing business here use their wealth and influence to improve the lives of children from less fortunate areas. It is so wonderful to see corporate responsibility manifest itself in this way.

  9. Very interesting. Great information. Immunizing our kids is something I spend a ton of time researching and learning. I think it is so important and valuable for all parents to be educated and do what is best for their family.

  10. My brothers and I were all vaccinated. We had all of our children vaccinated. None of us ever had any of the illnesses the vaccines were for. None of us have ever had whopping cough, thankfully.
    Vaccines are so incredibly important to the health of our society in general. Good info, I hope parents of young children are inspired as they should be.

  11. We keep up to date with most of our vaccines. I’m weary about the MMR, but we vaccinate, just later than the doctor recommends. If a Measles outbreak happens, we’ll be quick to get to the doctor. My son gets this horrific allergy related cough every year. Sounds like whooping cough but no relation.

  12. The kids are vaccinated in our family. We tested to make sure Bella was able to have the booster shots because children with rare genetic issues like Bella sometimes are not able to get vaccinated the side effects are to risky. However Bella is pretty lucky and was able to get vaccinated. Always do research before you give your children any vaccines. I’m so glad your educating people this whooping cough is awful to see children suffer some of the parents I mentor have had children with whooping cough because they didn’t get vaccinated. I often wonder if adults need to have boasters too help prevent us from passing it to our children ?

  13. Ann Bacciaglia

    My friends little girl just had Whooping cough and it was terrible. We ended up having to take her to the hospital in the middle of the night the poor girl.

  14. We are all fully vaccined (minus flu shot) we’ve never had to deal. With whooping cough I don’t even think I’ve ever known anyone with it! Sounds awful.

  15. I can’t imagine having to deal with whooping cough in my family. It looks so scary. I’m glad my family vaccinated against it!

  16. For years, I thought whooping cough was a thing of the past, but I guess not. We all need to make sure we protect ourselves against that.it can be brutal.

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