Whooping cough shot urged for new moms

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Companion piece:http://www.whale.to/w/donegan.htmlWHOOPING COUGH: THE DISEASE AND THE VACCINEBy Dr Jayne L M Donegan (June 2000 The Informed Parent)>>Does the vaccine cause brain damage? A paper published in 1974 described neurological complications of pertussis vaccination (5). This caused widespread panic among parents and some health professionals. In order to investigate the matter, the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study was set up which looked at all ‘serious neurological events’ occurring in children aged two to thirty five months between 1976-79 and matched them with ‘controls’ who had not had such an event (6). It was a bit of a strange study in that it did not look at the number of children in the ‘event’ or ‘control’ group who had been vaccinated against pertussis compared with those who had not, but only at the numbers who had been vaccinated against pertussis in the seven days before the neurological event. This means that a child could have had a serious neurological reaction two or three weeks after pertussis vaccination and this would not have been included in the ‘pertussis vaccine’ figures. As we know, one of the major problems encountered by parents who believe that their children have been damaged by vaccines, is that symptoms coming on more than 72 hours or, in this case, seven days, after vaccination are discounted. Anyway, even with this improbable time frame, it was shown that those with severe neurological damage were 2.5 times more likely to have been vaccinated against pertussis in the seven preceding days than the ‘controls’. The numbers were small but significant. A follow up study ten years later showed that those children who had since died or had neurological dysfunction were four times more likely to have been vaccinated against pertussis in the seven days preceding their original illness. As some of the neurological dysfunction was considered to be quite mild, a reanalysis was carried out which included only those children with more severe dysfunction and death. These children were 7.3 times more likely to have been vaccinated in those seven days (7).<<>>Our vaccination program seems to have produced generations of mothers whose poor quality vaccine antibodies are unable to protect their babies from whooping cough. They are contracting it and dying of it at less than eight weeks old. Placental antibodies from natural infection should protect children for that vulnerable first year, particularly if combined with breast feeding. Our one to four year olds, without the benefit of ‘natural’ boosting of their immunity from circulating wild disease are catching vaccine modified disease in increasing numbers. Our vaccinated adults are getting chronic coughs from it because they haven’t had natural infection in childhood. The high prevelancc of vaccination seems to be causing a drift towards a higher incidence of disease caused by the 1, 2 serotype which is more likely to be associated with complications and admission to hospital (21). And all this without worrying about whether pertusss vaccination causes an increased incidence of asthma, allergic conditions, ear infections, invasive bacterial infections or severe, permanent neurological damage.The decision to vaccinate one’s child against whooping cough is certainly one that requires careful consideration.<<=========http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090121/UPDATES01/901210456January 21, 2009Whooping cough shot urged for new moms By LIZ SZABO USA TODAYDoctors should routinely give all new mothers a vaccine to protect their newborns from whooping cough, a sometimes deadly illness that has made a recent comeback, according to a study in Wednesday's Obstetrics & Gynecology.Although experts recommend that mothers receive the shot before taking their babies home from the hospital, few women even know about the vaccine, which can help protect unvaccinated infants, says study co-author Tina Tan, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.Newborns, who aren't vaccinated until they're 2 months old, are increasingly vulnerable to whooping cough, or pertussis, which has made a comeback in recent years as more parents opt out of vaccinating their kids, Tan says. While some fear that childhood vaccines may contribute to autism, scientists say there is ample proof that this isn't true.It's clear, however, that about half of babies with whooping cough get the illness from their parents, while an additional 25 percent to 35 percent get the cough from another household member, Tan says.Parents may not realize they have pertussis, which may to them resemble a bad cough, says Tanya Remer Altmann, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics who wasn't involved in this study. The disease is far more serious in newborns.In 2004-2005, 66 babies under age 1 died from whooping cough, including 56 who were under 3 months old, Tan says.And while providing a "cocoon" of protection around newborns can be lifesaving, only about 2 percent of parents with babies in neonatal intensive care get the shot, according to a recent study from the State University of New York-Stony Brook.Even people who received the shot as children can spread the disease, Tan says, because the vaccine's immunity wears off after about six to eight years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends that adults get revaccinated with a combination shot that prevents tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.Few doctors mention the shot to their patients, says Tan, who has been paid by vaccine makers Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline to speak to doctors about pertussis.Altmann says she recommends the vaccine to the parents of all her newborn patients, along with a flu shot in the fall and winter.Yet while pediatricians can educate parents, they can't vaccinate them, says Ari Brown, also a spokeswoman for the pediatrics academy. "I wish we could give shots to the parents, but they are not our patients," she says. =====In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.