Study: Whooping Cough Vaccine Weakens Over Time

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Published: 9/13/2012 6:02 am

Updated: 9/13/2012 8:57 am

The vaccine against whooping cough may not be as effective for children as once thought.

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that in the planned series of shots, the vaccine is less effective each year after the most recently administered shot.

The final shot is given around age six, and then a tetanus booster is recommended about five years later.

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Chuck Simmins - 9/13/2012 11:17 AM

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California is one of the good stories in 2012. After having 9,000 cases of whooping cough in 2010, the state aggressively pushed education, cocooning infants through booster shots and enacted a requirement for 7th graders to receive a booster. This year, the state has reported about 400 cases. The present vaccine formula is most effective in communities where 95 percent or more are vaccinated. Some of the states with the highest levels of whooping cough have yet to enact an immunization requirement for "tweens", ages 10-12 when the five shot series seems to become ineffective. The reports of immunized patients catching whooping cough most often refer to "tweens" or to those that have not received the original full five shot series. Twenty-one states allow some form of exemption from immunization requirements based upon strongly held personal or philosophical beliefs. Eight of the top ten states in reported cases are PE states and they account for 55 percent of all the cases in the nation. In a study from 2010, whooping cough outbreaks were found to center in wealthy, nearly all white communities, often state capitals or sites of major universities such as Ohio State or the University of Texas. The current epidemic is not due to illegal immigration but to the misguided beliefs of otherwise well-educated parents. With about one third of the year remaining, the total number of whooping cough cases has exceeded the modern record set in 2010 of 27,550 cases. This year's total may be well over forty thousand cases and could even approach fifty thousand.

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