Whooping cough vaccines should be given to all adults, gov't panel says

A woman is vaccinated against whooping cough (pertussis), at a pharmacy in Pasadena, California on September 17, 2010.

/ Getty/Robyn Beck

(CBS/AP) All U.S. adults should get the whooping cough vaccine, a federal advisory panel voted Wednesday.

PICTURES: 12 myths and facts about vaccines

The panel wants to expand its recommendation to include all those age 65 and older who haven't gotten a whooping cough shot as an adult.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that in rare cases can be fatal. It leads to severe coughing that causes children to make a distinctive whooping sound as they gasp for breath.

Children have been vaccinated against whooping cough since the 1940s, but a vaccine for adolescents and adults was not licensed until 2005. Since then, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has gradually added groups of adults to its recommendation. Wednesday's recommendation means now all adults should get at least one dose.

"They've been moving up to this in baby steps," said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccines expert.

Recommendations from the panel are usually adopted by the government, which sends the guidance out to doctors.

In 2010, a whooping cough epidemic in California contributed to the push to vaccinate more adults. That epidemic infected 9,000 people and killed ten babies, HealthPop reported.

Only about 8 percent of adults under 65 have been vaccinated, but about 70 percent of adolescents have. There's little data on how many elderly people have gotten the vaccine. Health officials believe whooping cough is underreported in older adults, perhaps because in older people the illness can be hard to distinguish from other coughing ailments.

A goal of the recommendation is to prevent teens and adults from spreading the disease to infants, although there's not good evidence this "herd immunity" approach has worked so far. Vaccination for children is included in a series of shots, beginning at 2 months.

The adult vaccine combines protection against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough. One version of the vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was licensed for use in the elderly last year. The committee said another version, made by Sanofi Pasteur, can also be given. Both cost about $35 a dose.

The shot is as safe as a regular tetanus booster. Estimates range widely for how effective the vaccine is at preventing whooping cough in older adults, or how much its protection wanes years afterward.

Nearly 28,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in 2010, resulting in 27 deaths, the last time the CDC reported data. Twenty-five of those deaths were in children younger than 1 year old.

The CDC has more on whooping cough.

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12 myths and facts about vaccines

[ninaneenee]

I just know what I've learned over the years. If the government says one thing, believe the opposite and don't ever trust the government to "save" you. They must have some left over vaccinations or they want to give us a dose of something "special" included in the new so-called epidemic that is supposedly upon us. Read about how AIDS started from the polio vaccination in "Dr. Mary's Monkey."

[mayknmusic]

I think I'll pass on this one. No. Just no.

[Patrick_Thomas]

The vaccination is a complete failure and the unvaccinated are not to blame. I have proof:

"A collection of mainstream news reports and studies exploding the whooping cough vaccine myth"

http://www.dailypaul.com/167931/a-collection-of-mainstream-news-reports-and-studies-exploding-the-whooping-cough-vaccine-myth

[Patrick_Thomas]

Mainstream study admits vaccine causing these outbreaks):

Acellular pertussis vaccination enhances B. parapertussis colonization

"....vaccination led to a 40-fold enhancement of B. parapertussis colonization in the lungs of mice.....these data suggest that the vaccine may be contributing to the observed rise in whooping cough incidence over the last decade by promoting B. parapertussis infection."

http://www.cidd.psu.edu/research/synopses/acellular-vaccine-enhancement-b.-parapertussis

[gjc1n1]

Try to get any vaccine except the flu or pneumonia vaccine from a physician treating adults and you will run your tail ragged. They don't carry them. They make no money from them, are expensive and go bad quickly. They will tell you to go to a hospital, pediatrician or something like CVS.

[foodandart]

Herd indeed. Only someone willing to be treated as meat would put up with this. Get a grip.

Diseases happen and the weak are culled. That is how LIFE on EARTH has evolved over BILLIONS of years, it is that force of change and winnowing that MADE us. Each and every one.

The high-handed arrogance of the scientific community for all it's bluster can't change that fact.

Oh how it must chafe for them to be animal, flesh and blood, human beings and not gods.

If they REALLY were interested in promoting health in the greatest numbers possible, they'd launch an all-out assault on the toxins like HFCS that have been added into almost every man-made product egregiously called 'food' in today's grocery stores.

Or do they choose to ignore that since 1985, *Adult-onset diabetes* has exploded in children.

(I'm NOT going to call it 'Type-2' so we can continue to ignore that children are getting what should be an old person's disease in ever greater, costlier numbers)

The CDC and the NIH are run by COWARDS!

Deal with the corn-fed, poisoned, American, industrially produced McFood diet.