- The State Health Officer said contingency plans are in place to ensure WIC, other programs continue through the federal government shutdown.
Evidence that vaccinations are improving health outcomes, especially for infants, was the theme during Wednesday’s Mississippi State Board of Health meeting.
The Board was also updated on how the Mississippi State Department of Health is faring in the federal government shutdown. In addition, a plan of action was presented that aims to address health deserts in the state.
The Board heard about the recent infant pertussis death reported late last month, which State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said is the first in Mississippi in more than a decade. According to information released by MSDH on Sept. 29, the child was two months old.
“We have not had a pertussis death since 2013, and so it’s disturbing we are having deaths related to vaccine preventable diseases,” Edney said. “But in this case… the infant was too young to be vaccinated.”
While the mother was vaccinated, and even received a booster shot during pregnancy, Edney estimates the child came into contact with an unvaccinated person in the community. For those reasons, MSDH has been campaigning for grandparents and other adults to receive booster shots when their first grandchild or a young family member is born. He added that is why it’s important for adults to keep up with that vaccination, because exposure is incredibly impactful to babies that are too young to be vaccinated.
Across the state, cases of pertussis, also referred to as whooping cough, are rising for some reason, said State Epidemiologist Director Dr. Renia Dotson. Those increases appear to be happening in certain regions of the state, mostly in the Delta and southwest portion of Mississippi.
As of this month, Dotson said there have been 120 cases reported to MSDH, of which 95 were in people younger than 18 years of age. She added that 58 of those cases were for young people who were not vaccinated.
In 2023, only three cases were reported. A majority of those total cases were in Districts 2, 5, and 9. District 2, which is in the Delta, comprised 43 percent of the reported cases, Dotson added.
Edney pointed back to the 1950s, a time when vaccines were not commonplace. In that decade the state was losing 2,000 to 2,500 babies annually.
“Those are staggering numbers,” Edney described. “We’re down to around 330 to 350, which is severely high numbers, but nothing in comparison to what we were looking at prior to vaccinations coming online.”
For comparison, through the 1970s into the early 1990s, the infant mortality numbers fell sharply.
“I remind people that is not because of improved neonatal care and NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), that’s because of vaccinations coming online and really knocking down the number of vaccine preventable deaths that we were seeing in infants,” Edney added.
Currently, the average infant mortality rate in the state is 9.7 for every 1,000 live births. Dotson said there are racial disparities in the state driving that rate. For instance, the average mortality rate for African American babies was 15.2 percent last year. While some areas of the state, such as the Gulf Coast, are seeing lower rates compared to others, Mississippi’s average rate is still higher than the national average of 5.4 deaths for every 1,000 live births.
“So, we have problem all over the state, but especially we have difficulty in poor Delta and southwestern counties,” Edney described.
To address the issue, MSDH is developing a plan to provide more prenatal and perinatal care in areas of the state where expectant mothers would have to drive 40 minutes or more for care. Those gaps will be filled through a County Health Department based care system. The focus will be on counties without a federally qualified health center, OB and or family physician.
“We’re going to plug holes where no one is working and we’re going to do that with the county health departments through using mid-level providers to provide prenatal care and postpartum care throughout that year in partnership and collaboration with their OBs,” Edney added.
In response to the current government shutdown, Edney told the Board a plan of action is in place to ensure MSDH services continue, especially the WIC (Women Infants and Children) program.
“We did get direction from USDA allowing us to access our 2025 budget year money for WIC,” Edney explained. “That should carry us with operations through the month of October. We are committed to taking care of our WIC participants and especially our priority one new enrollments, which are pregnant moms, breastfeeding moms and new infants.”
Enrollments in the program will continue, due to contingency plans in place with the USDA.
Edney also said MSDH’s employees and other programs are not expected to be affected.
“We have funding to make payroll and keep our programs operational,” Edney said. “I believe our contingency plan will be effective so we don’t have a shortfall until the shutdown is over.”
Jeremy Pittari
