As an R.N. so aptly stated, “If it doesn’t work, just add more of them – great logic!”  Indeed.  - SM

 

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/uk.cfm?id=91827

 

New jab plan for deadly cough

Kate Foster Health Correspondent

THE government is planning to add a whooping cough booster to the childhood vaccination programme - amid fears that the current jab is losing its effectiveness after just one year.

Experts are concerned about a rise in cases among young children in particular - and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is considering the options for introducing an extra jab for pre-school youngsters.

Professor Keith Cartwright, a member of the JCVI, said the protection offered by the current DTP course was "not perfect". He added: "It gives 80 to 90 per cent protection and there is evidence of waning protection after the first year."

Dr David Goldblatt, a paediatric immunologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London and fellow JCVI member, said a pre-school jab might boost the response of older children and prevent them infecting unimmunised infant siblings.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, can cause permanent disability, and even brain damage in a small number of cases. In severe cases the disease can kill. In young children it can lead to bouts of coughing which often cause vomiting and choking.

Cases of the disease rose after 1995, when 2,159 cases were recorded, 290 of which were in Scotland. In 1996 they rose to 2,529 and in 1997 to 3,402 - 413 of which were in Scotland.

Although cases in Scotland declined in 1998 to 136, they rose again in 1999 to 174 and experts believe there are significant numbers which go unreported.

UK-wide numbers have fallen, but experts are still concerned by the apparent reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Dr Elizabeth Miller, from the immunisation division of the Public Health Laboratory, who complied data currently being considered by the JCVI said: "Data shows a significant downward trend in efficiency of the vaccine as children get older, from 95.8 per cent in the six to 11 month age group to 75.8 per cent in the five to 14 year age group.

"As with a number of recent international reports, our data shows a significant recent mortality in very young children affected by pertussis and an increasing proportion of cases in very young children.

"In the presence of continued high vaccination levels and early signs of more rapid waning of the efficiency of the current vaccine, high levels of illness and death in young children can only be addressed by providing booster vaccinations in older groups and increased recognition of disease in milder forms so that those at risk of severe disease can be given antibiotics at an early stage."

Children are vaccinated against whooping cough along with diphtheria, tetanus and the bacteria in the Haemophilus influenzae type b in the DTP-Hib jab given at two, three and four months.

The DT part is also given at age three to five years as a booster and the JCVI, which is keen to limit the number of jabs given to children, is looking at the possibility of combining the whooping cough booster with the DT pre-school booster.

However, an acellular vaccine, which causes fewer side-effects than the whole-cell vaccines currently administered, is being looked at "very seriously" both for use as the booster dose and as a replacement for the current whole-cell vaccine.