Some of the fear-based commercials I dislike more than any other are those by Jennifer Lopez as she frightens parents into believing they must give the series of pertussis vaccines to their infant or risk the death of their child. If all I knew of pertussis was that gained from popular media, I'd feel I was a horrible parent - deserving of stoning for the risk I was putting my child in. The "Sounds of Pertussis" page on Facebook has over 49,000 fans. Websites have been built solely around the looped recordings of children and babies with whooping cough. Lopez puts a pop culture spin on the whole resounding message: Your baby needs to get the pertussis vaccine, and so do you - now! Or s/he could die from this horrific cough. [One video example below]
The real facts of the matter are much different than those painted in the celeb-hosted media advertisements. Parents who opt out of the pertussis vaccine for their children do not contribute to pertussis cases among vaccinated children, as this article below suggests. Pertussis (and the vaccine associated with it) is one of the more well-researched illnesses. In fact, breastfeeding - especially exclusive breastfeeding (i.e. nothing but human milk for a human baby) for at least the first 8 months of life - is a much more potent 'vaccine' against pertussis than any manufactured one has ever been.
[Side note: The gut of a human infant closes around the 8th month. 80% of the immune system is housed in the gut. The longer a human infant receives only human milk (thereby not altering the natural flora of the virgin open gut), the more effective their immune system will be - both immediately and long term. This is one of the reasons that we set our initial goal as 12 months of exclusive breastmilk for our babies, altering it with flexibility (ranging 8-18 months) depending on an individual baby's needs, birth status (preemie vs. full term) and developmental stages. It is also a basic contributing factor in the history of humans consuming primarily human milk (and little else) for the first 2 years of life.]
For further information on the subject of pertussis and diseases and vaccinations in general, and in order to make a decision that makes the best sense for your family and each individual child (on a case by case basis) see books linked here.
Whooping Cough Strain Immune to VaccineBy Danny Rose of The Daily Telegraph
THE bacteria that causes whooping cough has mutated, eroding the protection provided by the vaccine now given to children, scientists warned yesterday.
University of NSW researchers have identified significant changes in the two most common strains of the bordetella pertussis bacteria, which they also traced back to events in the late 1990s.
Australian children were given a broad-acting "whole cell" vaccination against whooping cough up to 1997, but this was phased out over two years and replaced with a more targeted version.
Concerns over potential side-effects were behind the change to a vaccine with a narrower scope, but this now appears to have contributed to the promotion of resistant strains.
"A key issue is that the whole cell vaccine contained hundreds of antigens, which gave broad protection against many strains of pertussis," UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences associate professor Ruiting Lan said.
"But the (targeted) acellular vaccine contains only three to five antigens. Our findings suggest that the use of the acellular vaccine may be one factor contributing to these genetic changes."
The research team analysed more than 200 samples of the bacterium collected over the past 40 years in Australia and compared them with samples from Japan, Canada, USA and Finland.
They found while the vaccine now in use was effective against some of the strains circulating in Australia it may no longer protect against two strains, known as MT27 and MT70.
Dr Lan said more research was needed to confirm the results but health authorities may need to modify the vaccine to broaden the protection it offered.
Whooping cough cases are on the rise in Australia, with several significant outbreaks seen last year in western Sydney.
Protection against whooping cough is contained in childhood vaccinations which, in NSW, are usually given to infants.
Parents who opt out of this child vaccination process were thought to have contributed to the rise in cases.
This whole vaccinating adults thing SOUNDS good, until you know that a woman who has had pertusis can pass her bodys immunity to her baby through the placenta and that placental immunity will last the first three months of baby's life. Start vaccinating adults and you will leave their infants more at risk, not less!!
ReplyDeleteThat is really awesome!!! Could you post so links, so that I might research that a information a bit more. It is exactly what I am looking for, as I am 36 weeks preggo, and have pertussis, but am being bullied by healthcare givers to get vaccinated. Thanks so much in advance :)
DeleteMost diseases are a complex phenomenon and there are no simple answers. My son was breastfed for two years. He was also vaccinated. At 8 years old he contracted a "mild" case of whooping cough. He coughed so hard the blood vessels in his eyes burst. Perhaps vaccinations have made many people complacent because they have never seen a case of whooping cough. I think we've forgotten how horrific some of the childhood diseases really are.
ReplyDeleteThis was posted in February of this year. I think that's around the beginning of this whole whooping cough thing.
ReplyDeleteAll this is, is a battle on two fronts.
1st: It's a way of pushing the compulsory vaccination agenda. Get as many people as they can shot up and there's no one left to compare vaccinated vs unvaccinated. And of course for the money and probably other reasons as well.
2nd: They are probably going to either introduce a new whooping cough vaccine, or attempt to push the multi strain version. They want to cash in on the epidemic wave.
They know whooping cough comes in waves. They also know that a natural immunity to it last's considerably longer than the vaccine. Even according to their flawed studies. I mean, even dogs get injected with this and they recommend getting one every year for a dog. Or even as soon as 7 months if they are going to be in a kennel or exposed to lots of dogs.
Why? Because they know it doesn't really work. But if people believe this is the only way to save their children from the absolutely terrifying, paralyzing, life destroying disease, then they need to do it. (roll eyes)
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_1e57b3db-8302-5313-99b3-f15d48b8829f.html
ReplyDelete“ For pertussis cases in which vaccination histories are known, between 44 and 83 percent were of people who had been immunized, according to data from nine California counties with high infection rates. In San Diego County, more than two-thirds of the people in this group were up to date on their immunizations.”
http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar06may-2.pdf
“Pertussis is considered an endemic disease, characterized by an epidemic every 2–5 years. This rate of exacerbations has not changed, even after the introduction of mass vaccination – a fact that indicates the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing the disease but not the transmission of the causative agent (B. pertussis) within the population [19].”
http://www.adacel-locator.com/index.cfm?FA=protect/adacel/content&S=HOME&P=HowS_pread
“* It is unknown whether immunizing adolescents and adults against pertussis will reduce the risk of transmission to infants.3”
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pertussis+Infection+in+Fully+Vaccinated+Children+in+Day-Care+Centers%2c...-a066705900
“The study:
All the children in the day-care centers had been immunized in infancy with all four doses of Pasteur diphtheria-tetanus toxoid toxoid.......
All family members of the infant were also fully vaccinated with four doses of DTP. The infant had received only the first dose of vaccine at 2 months of age. [The infant died.]”
The “epidemic” of Pertussis? Thanks to vaccinating, Pertussis has mutated. From the CDC:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/mooiG4.htm
Commentary on the mutation:
http://www.babble.com.au/2010/02/11/whooping-cough-bacteria-has-mutated-vaccines-no-longer-effective/
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/extract/104/6/1381
"The first is that a substantial number of B pertussis infections in unvaccinated children are mild and would not meet the case definition. The second is that all pertussis vaccines tend to modify duration and severity of disease rather than completely preventing illness"
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no5/pdf/srugo.pdf
"The effects of whole-cell pertussis vaccine wane after 5 to 10 years, and infection in a vaccinated person causes nonspecific symptoms (3-7). Vaccinated adolescents and adults may serve as reservoirs for silent infection and become potential transmitters to unprotected infants (3-11). The whole-cell vaccine for pertussis is protective only against clinical disease, not against infection (15-17). Therefore, even young, recently vaccinated children may serve as reservoirs and potential transmitters of infection. "<<<<---
http://iai.highwire.org/cgi/content/full/68/12/7175
"In summary, booster immunization of adults with acellular pertussis vaccines was not found to increase bactericidal activity over preimmunization levels. Identifying ways to promote bactericidal immune responses might improve the efficacy of acellular pertussis vaccines. "
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/1999/WHO_V&B_99.03.pdf
ReplyDelete"In discussion, Dr Cherry pointed out that in Japan also the reported pertussis incidence in children under three months of age has not declined substantially with return to a high vaccination coverage."
http://iai.asm.org/cgi/reprint/58/10/3445
"This is consistent with animal experiments which suggest that adhesions not targeted by the vaccine may permit a bit of colonization and that neutralization of pertussis toxin would limit the severity of the disease but would not have an impact on the initial stages of infection."
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi...10.1086/381204
"Of particular interest is the lack of a significant ACT antibody response in children for whom the DTP or DTaP vaccines failed. This induced tolerance is intriguing and may be due to the phenomenon called “original antigenic sin”
Here is the actual vaccine insert for the Tripedia DTaP vaccine where Autism is listed as a symptom:
http://www.vaccineshoppe.com/image.cfm?doc_id=5966&image_type=product_pdf
Here is the UK version:
http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_pediarix.pdf
About DTaP in the US note:
-Diphtheria, not common, max of 5 cases a year and sometimes none at all, 10% fatality rate, treatable.
-Tetanus, not common for young babies, 50 average cases a year in the u.s., most cases in teens and adults, 1 case in kids under 5 per year, 15% fatality rate, treatable, highly unlikely to occur if wounds are washed and treated accordingly. DTaP useless as it takes weeks to build an immune response. Those worried about Tetanus can request the Tetanus Immunoglobulin shot (TiG).
-Pertussis, natural disease usually results in immunity, common, serious cases in infants under 6 months, 1% fatality rate, most deaths occur in infants under 2 months, after 6 months fatalities are rare, treatable, infants may need to be hospitalized for oxygen deprivation during coughing fits. According to the CDC stats, 15 deaths per year when infants are not treated promptly.
Here, you can track Pertussis right on the CDC page:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_wk.html
To find out the reported number of deaths, visit the CDC’s website here and type in which disease you are interested in learning about:
http://wonder.cdc.gov/
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national vaccine safety site run by the American government: http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/ReportaProblem/VaccineAdverseEvents/default.htm.
An easier tool to use that searches the VAERS database is at http://www.medalerts.org. Go ahead and search DTaP and TDaP. Read the case stories.
Do you know what is in the DTaP?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fda.gov/cber/label/dtapsan110806LB.pdf
Deptacel (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis)
10 micrograms detoxified pertussis toxin
5 micrograms filamentous haemagglutinin
5 micrograms fimbriae types 2 and 3 (FIM)
3 micrograms pertactin (PRN)
15 Lf (limit flocculation) diphtheria toxoid
5 Lf (limit flocculation) tetanus toxoid
1.5 mg aluminum phosphate (0.33 mg of aluminum)
5 micrograms or less of residual formaldehyde
50 nanograms or less of residual glutaraldehyde
3.3 mg (0.6% v/v) 2-phenoxyethanol
- Pertussis:
Bordetella pertussis cultures grown in Stainer-Scholte medium, with added casamino acids and dimethyl-beta-cyclodextrin.
Toxin detoxified with glutaraldehyde.
Filamentous hemagglutinin is treated with formaldehyde.
Residual aldehydes are removed by ultrafiltration.
Individual antigens adsorbed separately onto aluminum phosphate.
- Diphtheria:
Corynebacterium diphtheriae cultures grown in modified Mueller’s growth medium.
Toxin purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation and detoxified with formaldehyde and diafiltered.
Toxoid is individually adsorbed onto aluminum phosphate
- Tetanus:
Clostridium tetan: cultures grown in modified Mueller-Miller casamino acid medium without beef heart infusion.
Toxin is detoxified with formaldehyde and purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation and diafiltration.
Toxoid individually adsorbed onto aluminum phosphate.
http://www.fda.gov/cber/label/dtapsmi121302LB.pdf
Pediarix (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis)
25 Lf diphtheria toxoid
10 Lf of tetanus toxoid
25 micrograms inactivated pertussis toxin
25 micrograms filamentous hemagglutinin
8 micrograms pertactin
10 micrograms HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen)
40 D-antigen Units (DU) of Type 1 poliovirus
8 DU of Type 2 poliovirus
32 DU of Type 3 poliovirus
2.5 mg 2-phenoxyethanol (a preservative)
4.5 mg sodium chloride
Not more than 0.85 mg aluminum by assay
100 micrograms or less residual formaldehyde
100 micrograms or less polysorbate 80 (Tween 80)
Thimerosal is used at the early stages of manufacture and is removed by subsequent purification steps to below the analytical limit of detection (less than 25 nanograms mercury per 20 micrograms HBsAg) which upon calculation is less than 12.5 nanograms mercury per dose
0.05 nanograms or less of Neomycin
0.01 nanograms or less of polymyxin B
5% or less of yeast protein
- Diphtheria:
Corynebacterium diphtheriae cultures grown in Fenton medium containing a bovine extract.
- Tetanus:
Clostridium tetani cultures grown in a modified Latham medium derived from bovine casein.
Detoxified with formaldehyde.
Purified by precipitation, dialysis, and sterile filtration
- Pertussis:
Bordetella pertussis cultures grown in modified Stainer-Scholte liquid medium.
Toxin detoxified with glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde.
Filamentous hemagglutinin and pertactin, two pertussis antigens, are treated with formaldehyde.
ANTIBIOTICS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14595048?dopt=Abstract
“Children who received an antibiotic had a duration of cough 6 to 11 days longer and spasmodic cough 4 to 13 days longer than untreated patients.”
Clinical Infectious Diseases 1992;14:708-719 "Epidemiological Features of Pertussis in the United States, 1980 - 1989" Farizo K M. et al.
“when treatment with erythromycin was initiated... the duration of cough tended to be even longer than for persons who did not receive erythromycin at all."
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/o/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD004404/frame.html
“AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotics are effective in eliminating B. pertussisfrom patients with the disease, rendering them non-infectious, but do not alter the subsequent clinical course of the illness. There is insufficient evidence to determine the benefit of prophylactic treatment of pertussis contacts.”