Anti-vaxers kill another child

[Gormy Cuss]

41. Similar results in an Aussie study of the outbreaks there.

The difference seemed linked to the acellular pertussis vaccine losing effectiveness much more quickly than the wholecell vaccine.

And this from a CDC director:

In a media phone call that day, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, went over the reason for the 20-year-old switch that may have fueled these rising rates of disease. She said:

Wholecell pertussis vaccines are widely used in many parts of the world. But in the U.S., we have not been using them since 1997… The wholecell pertussis vaccines had a fairly high rate of minor and short-term side effects like fever and pain and swelling at the injection site. Those were fairly common reactions. And the acellular pertussis vaccines have a lower rate of the fever and transient side effects. There were also rare, but serious neurologic adverse reactions, including chronic neurologic problems that occurred among children that recently received wholecell vaccines. Studies have not been consistent about whether the vaccine actually caused those chronic neurologic problems. Yet there was substantial public concern about them and not just in the U.S., but in other countries. That led to a concerted effort to develop a vaccine with an improved safety profile.

Schuchat added:

In young children, we think that within a couple of years of vaccination the Dtap series is 95 percent protection. Five years later after the series, we think it wanes to 70 percent. That going down from 95 percent effectiveness to 70 percent may be why we see this increase in the older children or young teens.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/pertussis-vax-effectiveness/