Sep 17 2012
The problem of waning pertussis immunity
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23 Responses to “The problem of waning pertussis immunity”
Hear, hear. I’ve personally been wondering if novel combinations of known adjuvants might be a valid stopgap measure – combining iccocsomes with an alum adjuvant worked well in increasing immunogenicity of a protein-only malaria vaccine, I would be curious to see similar studies with the current accelular pertussis shots.
Also, on the ‘mutations’ side of things, it’s worth noting that the available historical genotyping data also supports your interpretation.
These reviewers which summarised and interpreted it – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16221076 – found that not only was the same pertussis toxin mismatch (between the vaccine and the circulating pertussis) that there is today present during the three big efficacy trials that the Cochrane Collaboration’s efficacy estimate is based upon, but the wild isolates genotyped for pertactin also showed a shift toward Prn2 – meaning the same pertactin mismatch present today was also partially present during those trials.
What this suggests is that those estimates of vaccine effectiveness are likely still accurate on the background of the currently circulating genotypes.
There’s also a few other molecular reasons why this ‘mutation’ cannard being thrown around is unlikely to be relevant which I won’t waste space here discussing, but I will post a link to my breakdown of – http://lymphosite.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/b_pertussis/.
Awesome coverage, loved you article.
*your
Dr. Gorski: Could you please clarify this paragraph…
“First up, let’s look at a study study published last March examining the California pertussis outbreak by David J. Witt and colleagues at Kaiser Permanente. This study found a shorter-than-expected duration of immunity due to the the acellular pertussis vaccine. Basically, as I mentioned before, this study found that the vaccine was highly effective in children between 6 months and five years of age but that its effectiveness waned. The most disturbing part of the study was that it found that that vaccinated children between 10 and 12 were almost as likely to develop pertussis during the outbreak as unvaccinated children:”
Unfortunately, this paragraph has been picked up by a morphing troll that inhabits another science blog. That troll now claims that 6 month old babies are protected with just two or three DTaP vaccines. Thank you.
Tangentially, but kind of on topic: Mark Geier who was a major muckraker on pertussis vaccines, including being an “expert witness” has had his license to practice medicine in Maryland revoked.
See http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2012/09/quack-says-quack-board-says-neigh-its.html
and http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2012/09/mark-geiers-license-revoked-and-its.html
Chris, The Geiers who used to be prominently touted on AoA, have not received any “attention” there lately; no blogs there recently about how they have faced multi-state charges. Age of Autism’s affiliated organization Generation Rescue has featured Dr. Mark Geier and baby (not-a doctor), David Geier as speakers at their yearly Autism One Conferences.
At the 2012 Autism One Quackfest, here…
http://www.autismone.org/content/biological-basis-autism-causation-and-treatment
Here’s the timeline from the CDC regarding recommendations for booster Tdap for various populations:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/combo-vaccines/dtap-td-dt/tdap.htm
Note, that Tdap vaccine was first recommended only to boost pertussis immunity for 11 year old children in 2005…then other populations, including parents and caregivers of children under one year of age, were encouraged to get Tdap vaccine, to protect infants too young to have received the 2-4-6-12 month TDaP vaccines.
Oops…I got my vaccines against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis diseases, *mixed-up*.
The childhood primary doses formulation against these diseases is the DTaP vaccine.
Your infection-promoting agenda is not aggressive enough.
The writing is on the wall.
Great! Which of these realities do you accept then?
1. Vaccinators are infection promoters.
2. Vaccinators are germ denialists.
Let’s begin.
Still barking up the wrong squirrel Thingy?
Woof, woof. Grrrrrrr…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2kMQG7UIuQ
Wow, he has springs like my dog.
Good news about Geier losing his license. Every once in a while there is a truly satisfying bit of news.
@mtr:
I would be *delighted* if the Geier tag team faced criminal charges for defrauding the medical insurance companies and Medicaid which paid for Lupron medication to chemically castrate autistic kids, which paid for *treatments* to *treat/cure* precocious puberty…and possibly paid for, chelation *treatments* to remove heavy metals.
So glad that you enjoyed that short video.
The text should be corrected a little bit.
“The documentary linked the whole cell pertussis component of the DTwP to [acute] encephalopathy through a series of anecdotes of children who developed severe and horrific neurological issues after the DTP.”
@ lilady:
I’d rather see them facing charges for reckless endangerment and child abuse. Insurance fraud is nowhere near enough to nail them on.
What’s the third approach, infection promoter (or should I say germ denialist)?
Yeah right, you’re not agressive enough.
@lilady and Scott – I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t say which criminal charges would be more likely to result in more jail time, but I will say that I’d be happy to have my tax dollars spent on prosecuting Geier and his ilk.
Scott & mtr: We are all in agreement that Papa Geier and Baby (not-a-doctor) Geier, should be prosecuted for the crimes committed against defenseless autistic kids.
“One possible approach to deal with the issue of waning immunity of the DTaP vaccine would be to start it at a younger age with shorter intervals between doses. Another strategy might be to immunize pregnant women in order to reduce the risk that the mother will acquire pertussis around the time of delivery, with the added bonus that it would give the infant some protection for a month or two through maternal antibodies.”
There already is a recommendation for vaccinating pregnant women with the Tdap Vaccine:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/preg-guide.htm#tdap
“Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap); & Tetanus and Diphtheria (Td)
Pregnant women who have not been previously vaccinated with Tdap should get one dose of Tdap during the third trimester or late second trimester (after 20 weeks gestation). If not administered during pregnancy, Tdap should be administered immediately postpartum.”
Yawn. It appears that Thingy hasn’t thought of a new schtick yet. How dull.
No Dr. Gorski, Thingy has been provided internet access by “her keepers”. Clinically insane health-care-provider-wannabe troll, is still clinically insane and still trying *to impress us* with her non-existent education, her non-existent registered nurse licensing and her same old, same old, shtick.
Yawn…yawn…yawn. Time to *terminally disinfect* clinically insane troll
The acellular pertussis vaccine often does not work at all, and if it confers immunity, it often wears off in as little as three years. This means that no one should feel confident that their newborn will not contract the disease even if everyone around him was vaccinated last week. The disease is very rarely dangerous in those over four or five months old, and a natural case of the disease confers between thirty and seventy years worth of immunity, essentially lifetime immunity. Those who have had it will then not infect others. A better strategy than trying to get everyone submit to a dangerous vaccine once every year or two would be to quarantine newborns at home for the first few months of life, and then not worry about it. My (vaccinated) daughter and I both had it, and it was alarming, but not dangerous.
I’m very happy to see you commenting here, Th1Th2, your comments are always clever and on the mark (although I don’t agree with you that natural infection is something to be avoided at all costs). I really enjoy them, and relish their pungency and humor. Your critics can’t find any honest way to dismiss you as they would like to do, so they try to do so through cheap mockery.
Gray Falcon, I admire your decency. I saw that you had told Lilady that she had no reason to criticize Th1Th2 the way she did, and does. And I am grateful to you for telling Lara she had gone too far saying that I must have shaken my infant to cause her prolonged, inconsolable screaming. I disagree with your position, but respect your humanity.
[citation needed]
[citation needed]
And now I’m starting to wonder “Poe?” Is it *possible* for anyone to read the Thing’s lunatic ramblings and not recognize that their coherency and factual content compare poorly to the gurgles of my six-month-old?
Scott,
As you have identified, cia parker’s post was completely fact free – that is to say, full of lies whether intentional or not – so I can well understand how she could cuddle up to thick and thicker (th1th2)
To correct those figures left by ‘cia parker’, the duration of the immunity induced by the vaccine and natural pertussis infection have been estimated to last 4-12 and 4-20 years, respectively.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15876927
Perhaps the provision of incorrect data is the reason both Th1/Th2 and your own comments are dismissed, cia parker.