The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recently announced that the number of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) cases through May 2014 has already exceeded the number in 2013. As of 27 May 2014, the CDPH reported 2,649 cases of pertussis since the beginning of the year.… Read More »Why we vaccinate–because pertussis kills babies
One of the most selfish and narcissistic tropes of the antivaccination cult is that “if your child is vaccinated why do you need to worry about mine.” Setting aside the fact that the vaccine denier can make that arrogant statement… Read More »Why we vaccinate–to protect those children who can’t be vaccinated
Recently, there have been several outbreaks of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis), including one that reached epidemic levels in Washington state, which has been considered one of the worst pertussis outbreaks in the USA during the past several decades. The disease lead to 18 infant deaths in the USA during 2012.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends (pdf) that children should get 5 doses of DTaP (the vaccine for (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), one dose at each of the following ages: 2, 4, 6, and 15-18 months and 4-6 years. Those children who are not completely vaccinated according to these ACIP recommendations for pertussis are considered to be “undervaccinated.” Read More »Why we vaccinate–protecting babies from pertussis
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported that a three-week old child died of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) last week.
As the report states, a child cannot be vaccinated with DTaP (the vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) until they are about 2 months old. However, because infants are susceptible to whooping cough, all adults, children, friends, relatives, everyone, who is in contact with that child should be vaccinated against pertussis, a process called cocooning.
When an antivaccination militant says “my unvaccinated child won’t hurt your child”, this is where their lies are uncovered. For example, an unvaccinated older child may have whooping cough, and the parent take him or her to a pediatrician for the horrible cough, and that infected child passes it to other children.
In this case, the NC Department of Health and Human Services has not reported how the child may have contracted the deadly disease, so we can only speculate.Read More »Infant in North Carolina dies of whooping cough
Over the past year or so, there have been several outbreaks of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis), including one that reached epidemic levels in Washington state, which has been considered one of the worst pertussis outbreaks in the USA during the past several decades. The disease lead to 18 infant deaths in the USA during 2012.
The original DTP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) became available in the USA in 1948 and was critical to dropping the number of cases of whooping cough from 260,000 in 1934 to less than a few thousand per year in the 1990′s. The original vaccine contained what was called “whole-cell” pertussis, which includes all of the antigens of the pertussis bacterium, partially because it wasn’t understood (and to some extent still not fully understood) which antigens on the bacteria actually induce the proper immune response to have the body destroy a pertussis infection. In the late 1990’s, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that the USA switch to the acellular form of the vaccine, known as DTaP (a pediatric vaccine to immunize against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) or Tdap (the older children/adult version of same vaccine).Read More »Undervaccinating against pertussis puts children and community at risk
Over the past year or so, there have been several outbreaks of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis), including one that reached epidemic levels in Washington state, which has been considered one of the worst pertussis outbreaks in the USA during the past several decades. The disease lead to 18 infant deaths from whooping cough during 2012.
The original DTP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) became available in the USA in 1948 and was critical to dropping the number of cases of whooping cough from 260,000 in 1934 to less than a few thousand per year in the 1990’s. The original vaccine contained what was called “whole-cell” pertussis, which includes all of the antigens of the pertussis bacterium, partially because it wasn’t understood (and to some extent still not fully understood) which antigens on the bacteria actually induce the proper immune response to have the body destroy a pertussis infection. Read More »Comparing effectiveness of two types of pertussis vaccines
Despite the fact that over 95% of kindergarteners in the United States are properly vaccinated against whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) with the DTaP vaccine, there are persistent reports that the rates of whooping cough have risen during the past few years. Several outbreaks, along with an outright epidemic in Washington state, seemed to indicate that the vaccine’s effectiveness is waning faster than expected.
A recently published study in Pediatrics evaluates reports of increased rates of pertussis in the six years after receipt of the fifth (of five) DTaP doses. These reports suggest that waning of immunity to pertussis from DTaP is occurring before the recommended booster age of 11 to 12 years. The researchers tracked more than 400,000 Minnesota and Oregon children using immunization records and state health department whooping cough data. All of those children were born between 1998 and 2003 and received the recommended series of five DTaP shots, the final one usually given at 4-6 years old.Read More »Waning whooping cough immunity after DTaP–a new analysis
A new article published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Misegades et al. analyzed a recent whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) outbreak in California children. Misegades determined that those who had not been vaccinated against the disease were nine times more likely to get pertussis than those who had received the entire five-shot series. However, among children who were fully vaccinated, the longer it had been since their final dose of the DTaP vaccine (which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), the higher the risk of contracting whooping cough. This is in line with the decrease in effectiveness of the vaccine that has been discussed here and elsewhere.Read More »Whooping cough vaccine–facts about waning immunity
The Montana Department of Health has reported (pdf) that as of November 15, 2012, a whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) outbreak has reached over 500 cases since the beginning of the year, compared to only 129 cases during the same time period in 2011. As of November 15, 33 cases of pertussis were found in infants of less than one year of age. Of these, four have been hospitalized. Because Montana is has a small population (about 1 million people), the overall incidence rate year to date is 50.5 pertussis cases per 100,000 Montana residents.
This past spring, there was a pertussis outbreak in several Montana counties, but it seemed to abate during the summer. The Department of Health is reporting that Flathead county, a northern county that borders Canada, is currently struggling to contain an outbreak in five school districts. “Since the beginning of October, we have 35 cases,” said Community Health Services Director for Flathead County Jody White. “Usually we won’t even see 35 in a year, so it is definitely unusual to have this many.”
Read More »Whooping cough update: outbreak in Montana continues
On October 24, 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that “providers of prenatal care implement a Tdap immunization (Tdap or DTaP vaccine) program for all pregnant women. Health-care personnel should administer a dose of Tdap during each… Read More »CDC recommends pertussis vaccination for all pregnant women