Whooping cough vaccination

Killing. The proeess by which the live bacteria in the culture are killed and thus rendered harmless. Heat and disinfectants are employed. Heat and/or formalin are required to kill the cells of Bordetella pertussis used to make whooping-cough vaccines, and phenol is used to kill the Vibrio cholerae in cholera vaccine and the Salmonella typhi in typhoid vaeeine. 

Whooping-cough (Pertussis) (aceiiuiar)t Cultures of Bord. pertussis 1 Harvest 2 Extraction and blending of cell components As for whole-cell whooping-cough vaccine Weight gain test in mice to exclude excess toxicity... 

Notes Diphtheria and whooping cough vaccines are seldom used as single-component preparations but as components of diphtheria/tetanus vaccines and diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccines. A combined diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis/Hib vaccine is available. 

Dead or inactivated bacteria, e.g. cholera and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines. 

Therefore, the particular hazards of the Gulf War have resonance to general societal issues and concerns. There is, for example, a powerful antivaccination lobby which receives frequent media coverage, as exemplified by the controversy over whooping cough vaccination, and more latterly MMR vaccination (Jefferson, 2000). Likewise, the intense concerns around the use of DU munitions seem less related to its toxic properties (those of a heavy metal), and more to the powerful emotional impact of its assumed link with radioactivity (actually weak), engendered by the term uranium . 

Most current whooping cough vaccines are inactivated whole B. pertussis. The cells are harvested by centrifugation and then resuspended in buffer, which is the supemate in some cases. This is done because some of the filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and pertussis toxin (PT) antigens are released into the supernate. The cell concentrate is inactivated by mild heat and stored with thimerosal and/or formaldehyde. The inactivation process serves the dual purpose of killing the cells and inactivating the toxins. 

Public confidence in the safely of vaccines and immunization procedures is essential if compliance is to match the needs the community. In this respect public concern and anxiety, in the mid 1970s, over the peroeived safety of pertussis vaccine led to a reduction in coverage of the target group from ca. 80% to ca. 30%. Major epidemics of whooping-cough, with over 100000 notified cases, followed in 1977/1979 and 1981/83. By 1992, public confidence had returned, coverage had increased to 92% and there were only 4091 reported cases. 

It seems likely that many such (recombinant) subunit vaccines will gain future regulatory approval. One such example is that of Bordetella pertussis subunit vaccine. B. pertussis is a Gramnegative coccobacillus. It is transmitted by droplet infection and is the causative agent of the upper respiratory tract infection commonly termed whooping cough . 

Pertussis vaccines Killed strain(s) of Bordetella pertussis Active immunization against whooping cough... 

Vaccines in diis category protect children and adults from polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles (rubeola), mumps, rubella (German measles), hepatitis B, and hacmophilus disease (meningitis, epiglotitis). 

The risks of adverse effects after immnnization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, pohomyehtis, measles, and tuberculosis have been discussed in the framework of the WHO Expanded Program on Immunization and compared with the complication rate following natural disease (40). Table 8 presents a comparison of the estimated risks of adverse reactions after DTP immunization with the complication rates of natural whooping cough, while Table 9 shows a similar comparison for measles immunization and natural measles. The authors concluded that no vaccine is without adverse effects, but that the risks of serious complications from vaccines used in WHO s Expanded Program on Immunization are much lower than the risks from the natural disease. 

Adverse reaction Whooping cough complication rates per 100 000 cases DTP vaccine adverse reaction rates per 100 000 immunizations... 

These effects are responsible for most of the systemic features of whooping cough, the disease caused by Bordetella pertussis, the micro-organism that produces PT (Pittman, 1984). Accordingly, the existence of PT was first predicted by the expression of its numerous biological activities detected after infection with 6. pertussis or administration of whole cell pertussis vaccines. These activities include histamine sensitization, islet activation, induction of leukocytosis, immuno-potentiation and many others (Munoz, 1985). 

---