Highly contagious whooping cough has struck several students at a Kentucky elementary school.

There have been five confirmed cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, so far this week at Freedom Elementary School in Shepherdsville. Bullitt County public health officials say that between vaccines and antibiotics that the chance of the disease becoming fatal has been lessened

One in 4 American children has not been vaccinated properly, according to a new study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention of CDC.

CDC researchers added that these make the toddlers vulnerable to infectious diseases that are popping up in the United States

An additional dose of vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertusis (Tdap) will be required for North Carolina students. The Commission for Public Health authorized the new rules and also designates that all children before enrolling in school, college or university should get a second dose of vaccine for mumps. Immunization rules also encourage additional vaccine coverage for mumps and pertussis or whooping cough.

Most children are vaccinated against whooping cough before going to kindergarten but the immunity declines after 10 years. Outbreaks of mumps still happen in United States and other parts of the world and it was reported that 2006 Iowa and other Midwestern states outbreak begins on a college campus

New Jersey's health commissioner on Friday approved the mandatory annual flu vaccination of all preschoolers required by the Public Health Council starting on Sept. 1, 2008.

Preschoolers will also be required to receive a pneumococcal vaccine and sixth-graders will be required to receive vaccines against meningitis and a booster shot against whooping cough. The meningitis vaccine is already a requirement for college dormitory residents

Federal Health advisers are giving a thumbs up to a vaccine that would cut down the number of shots kids have to have. The so-called five-in-one vaccine would prevent diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and a bacterial infection that can cause meningitis, pneumonia and arthritis.

The OK means the Food and Drug Administration will likely approve the vaccine, called Pentacel. It would be given in four doses. The advisers also recommended follow-up studies on the vaccine