Washington State Pertussis Epidemic, Part 2
October 1, 2012 9:35 PM   Subscribe

Follow-up to recent impassioned thread about vaccinations, triggered by the news story that Washington State is in the midst of a Whooping Cough Epidemic. From the 9/29/12 Seattle Times: Vaccines for pertussis switched in the late 1990s from a whole-cell vaccine to a more highly purified “acellular” vaccine containing a smaller part of the bug. The new acellular formulations cause fewer side effects such as fever or seizures, said Dr. Edgar Marcuse, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and vaccines expert at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Now both the initial set of childhood pertussis vaccines, the DTaP series, and the Tdap vaccine approved in 2005 for teens and adults to boost protection, are acellular vaccines.

As the cases pile up, they have allowed epidemiologists to see the big picture: the major spikes in cases are occurring in younger teens, up to about age 15, who have never gotten the whole-cell vaccine. Although much has been made of some Washington residents’ reluctance to immunize their children, in fact, most parents are vaccinating their children against pertussis. Of those children aged 3 months to 10 years who came down with pertussis, 76% had received the recommended vaccines.

“We don’t think that (reluctance to vaccinate) is the driving force behind the rise in cases, “ Kim Brinker of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although I'm sure everyone who wants to shun (or shoot) parents who don't get their children vaccinated will continue to feel that way, some may be interested that the situation in Washington State is a little more complicated than it seemed at first.
posted by kestralwing (0 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: The whooping cough thread is still open and not that old, please post this in the open thread? -- jessamyn



 

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