UK - Warning to GPs after research uncovers true extent of whooping cough infection

[Guest guest]

, " Shag Spencer "

<shaaag2000 wrote:

>

 

Shag,

Thanks for posting this. I have a personal horror story and so am

acutely aware of how damaging the whooping cough vaccine really is.

It is just as dangerous as implicated here and MUCH more!~ Our

oldest son who will turn 47 this year, evidently was very

susceptible to pertussis (is there anybody who isn't?) for the day

following his injection he was afflicted with a very high fever

followed by a severe case of the whooping cough in which he

literally " coughed " for six months on end resulting in a " collapsed "

lung. Thankfully this has healed over the years and the specialists

prediction (an early demise in mid-twenties did not materialize).

One can only imagine the stress that very young children endure when

they are subjected to all this. Just one germ can literally destroy

everything we've strived to achieve! He was one of the lucky ones.

 

JoAnn

 

> Vaccinations , " mum2mishka " <mum2mishka@>

> wrote:

 

> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1164554.ece

>

> Warning to GPs after research uncovers true extent of whooping

cough infection

> By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor

> Published: 07 July 2006

>

> The potentially fatal childhood illness of whooping cough is far

more widespread than official figures suggest, researchers warn.

 

> A study of children with persistent coughs lasting more than 14

days in Oxford found almost four out of 10 had recently been

infected with the bacterium, Bordetella pertussis, which causes

whooping cough.

>

> More than 85 per cent had been immunised but had still caught the

> infection.

> Researchers said the vaccine - given to infants at two, three and

four

> months as part of the childhood vaccination programme - lessened

the

> severity of the illness, and was important for that reason, but

did not

> always prevent infection.

>

> The biggest risk was to younger siblings of school-age children

who were

> too

> young to be vaccinated. Half of infants under one who catch

whooping

> cough

> are admitted to hospital. GPs fail to diagnose the infection in

older

> children because it is perceived to be a disease of very young

children

> who

> have the classic whoop.

>

> Around 500 cases of the infection are notified to the Health

Protection

> Agency in England and Wales each year but the researchers estimate

that

> the

> true figure is " at least 10 times and maybe many more times

higher, "

> Richard

> Mayon-White, consultant epidemiologist at the University of Oxford

and

> an

> author of the study, said. The study suggested the condition was

> " endemic

> among younger school-age children " .

>

> The infection, known as the " 100-day cough " , starts like an

ordinary

> cold

> but develops into paroxysms of coughing, sometimes ending with

a " whoop "

> and

> often accompanied by vomiting. The worst affected children require

> hospital

> treatment and can suffer brain damage or death.

>

> Before vaccination was introduced in the 1960s, there were annual

> epidemics

> of between 60,000 and 160,000 cases. A scare about the safety of

the

> vaccine

> in the 1970s saw vaccination rates collapse. In the 1970s and 1980s

> there

> were 200,000 cases of whooping cough and 100 deaths, a death rate

of one

> in

> 2,000, according to the Health Protection Agency. Vaccination rates

> against

> whooping cough have since recovered and have remained at 94 per

cent for

> the

> past decade.

>

> In 2001, a fourth pre-school booster vaccination, given between

the ages of three and five, was introduced because of concerns about

the persistence of the infection in the community. The vaccine was

also changed from a

> whole cell to an acellular version, which has fewer side-effects

and can be manufactured to a higher standard.

>

> Writing in the online edition of the British Medical Journal, the

> researchers urge GPs to be alert to the possibility of whooping

cough in any child with a persistent cough lasting longer than two

weeks. " [Our] finding is important because secondary attack rates

of pertussis in

> non-immunised household contacts have been estimated to be 90 per

cent. Younger children are more likely than adolescents to have a

new-born sibling to whom they could transmit the infection.''

>

> --- End forwarded message ---