Whooping cough is not talked about much in the US, but it is a problem nonetheless. According to the CDC, there have been an average of 25,000 cases nationwide of whooping cough per year for the past 8 years. However, the vaccination rate for the DTaP vaccine was 95.5% over that time for children, so it is strange that the number of cases is so high. It is very surprising to me that there is such a high number of whooping cough cases in the US because I have not heard much concern about it in the media. I have heard more about measles than whooping cough, even though measles is controlled very well in the US.
According to Stanley Plotkin, a vaccine developer, the DTaP vaccine is flawed because its effectiveness sometimes wanes after 2-3 years. Even more troubling, in a study of baboons given the DTaP vaccination and exposed to the pertussis bacteria, researchers found that the vaccinated baboons became silent carriers of the disease and spread it to non-vaccinated baboons. This is bad because it means that the vaccinated kids are more of a danger to spread the whooping cough to their peers than unvaccinated children. The unvaccinated kids will develop a whooping cough and stay home until they feel better, then they will never spread the disease. The vaccinated children who are infected will have no cough or other symptoms, comes to school and spreads it. Scientist have discovered that the DTaP vaccine has given rise to a mutant form of the bacteria that they are not protected from. Based on this information, it seems to me that it is time for us to start developing a new DTaP vaccine.
Researchers at West Virginia University have recognized that the DTaP vaccine is outdated and want to reboot it. The original DTaP vaccine was introduced in the US in 1996, and it has not been updated since then. Dr. Wolf acknowledged that new strains of pertussis are emerging that are completely resistant to the current vaccine. The current vaccine also requires booster shots since its effects wear off after a few years, many people fail to get these booster shots. Researchers at WVU are looking at new ways to administer the DTaP vaccine, specifically with a nose spray. They think since the bacteria is inhaled from germs released into the air, a nose spray vaccine would be more effective. This makes sense to me and I am glad that they are working on developing a new vaccine. It is important for people to keep getting vaccinated, but vaccinations do no good if the vaccine is outdated. So we need scientists and researchers to keep updating vaccines that fight new strains that may appear.
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