Vaccine Ineffective Against New Strain of Whooping Cough

The National Institute of Health said last year was a record year for Whooping Cough. There were 41000 cases. The epidemic started out in Washington State. The NIH wants to make sure everyone gets their vaccinations even though the vaccine is no longer effective on one strain of the bacteria that cause Whooping  Cough.  That strain of Whooping Cough bacteria is missing a protein that the vaccine targets. These Whooping Cough bacteria are not controlled by the vaccine. So the vaccine will protect everyone from Whooping Cough.

Whooping Cough is a highly contagious airborne disease that is spread by coughing and sneezing. It affects the lungs and the airways and can be deadly in children. Sometimes a small child will cough so hard that they are unable to breathe. They can turn blue and die.

Whooping cough  was once a dreaded disease of childhood. It killing 5,000 to 10,000 Americans a year from the 1920s through the 1940s It is now a risk mostly to infants, to whom it is fatal in about 1 percent of cases.

Early symptoms are hard to spot. For the first 10 the symptoms are similar to an allergy or a mild cold. The symptoms include runny nose, low grade fever, mild occasional cough, and apnea (a pause in breathing in infants)

The next stage lasts from one to 10 weeks. The Symptoms include fits of numerous, rapid coughs followed by a “whooping” sound, vomiting and exhaustion after the coughing fits. Then for two to three weeks the disease gradually subsides. The disease is contagious during the first two weeks of the second stage. You can reduce the severity of the disease by getting antibiotics in the early stages.

In Washington State they found same percentage of people that were vaccinated got

Whooping Cough as those who were not vaccinated. This suggests that the vaccine is not working with the people in Washington.. But we still have a much lower rate of infection than before we had the vaccine. Even If if the vaccine is less effective it is important to have children vaccinated. The vaccinations have been shown to reduce the severity of the disease. This could be the difference between life or death for a small child. All 18 deaths in 2012 were children under three year old who were too young to have the full vaccination treatment.

This Should be a Wake up call. Bacteria can mutate to become resistant to vaccinations as well as antibiotics.  The big advantage to using Phage Therapy to fight bacteria is that phage is a virus and can mutate. Whenever a bacteria mutates a phage can be found to kill the new bacteria. Usually the new phage can be found in anywhere from two days to four weeks. It will take a long time to make a new vaccine or new antibiotics. To find out more about Phage Therapy check out my article from last month entitled “ The Most Plentiful Organism on Earth”