Whooping Cough - the Vaccine
The accellular vaccines are made from highly purified selected components of the Bordetella Pertussis organism. Formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde is used to render the organism less toxic. Aluminium phosphate or aluminium hydroxide is added to improve the immune response.
The vaccine advised for children aged 2/3/4 months contains 5 purified Pertussis components. Vaccines containing 3 and 5 components of Pertussis are provided based on their suitability for pre-school boosting.
The list of additives includes:
• medium 199 - which contains polysorbate 80, an emulsifying (thickening) agent derived from Sorbitol
• formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde
• aluminium phosphate or aluminium hydroxide
• neomycin, streptomycin, polymyxin B (antibiotics)
• polyribosylribitol phosphate (an artificial sweetener)
• 2-phenoxyethanol (phenol) - a preservative
From Sept 2004, Pertussis vaccines are free from thiomersal (mercury compound).
Pertussis vaccine is only given in combination, therefore side-effects will include adverse reactions to the various components, as follows:
• PEDIACEL ® (DTaP which includes high dose Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussin; IPV = injectable Polio; Hib) given at 2/3/4 months
• INFANRIX ® (DTaP; IPV) pre-school age 4-5 years
• REPEVAX ® (dTaP which includes low dose Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussin; IPV) pre-school age 4-5 years
The Department of Health lists side effects as: fever; hypotonic-hyporesponsive episodes; episodes of pallor, cyanosis and limpness; persistent crying or screaming for more than 3 hours; severe local reactions; encephalopathy or encephalitis; pain, swelling or redness at the injection site; convulsions; anaphylaxis and other allergic conditions.
Aventis Pasteur ® states that INFANRIX ® (DTaP/IPV) may also cause, in addition to the side effects listed above: pruritis, earache, pharyngitis, eye pain, insomnia, rhinitis, coughing, urinary incontinence, abdominal pain, back pain, swelling of the injected limb (sometimes involving the entire limb).
The DTaP vaccine has been associated with cot death, sudden infant death syndrome and shaken baby syndrome. The following is from Vaccines - Are They Really Safe and Effective by Neil Miller: "In a recent scientific study of SIDS, episodes of apnoea (cessation of breathing) and hypopnoea (abnormally shallow breathing) were measured before and after pertussis vaccinations. Cotwatch® (a sophisticated microprocessor placed under the baby's mattress to measure precise breathing patterns) was used, and the computer print-outs it generated were analyzed. The data clearly shows that vaccination caused an extraordinary increase in episodes where breathing either nearly ceased or stopped completely. These episodes continued for months following vaccination. Dr. Viera Schriebner, the author of the study, concluded that 'vaccination is the single most prevalent and preventable cause of infant deaths.'
With the introduction of the whooping cough vaccine, the disease has changed from one affecting children aged 4-7 years to a disease of adults or babies under one year. Generations of vaccinated women lack the antibodies to pass on to their babies through breast feeding. Antibodies made from immunisation are not passed to newborn babies as passive immunity from their mothers. This means that children aged under one year are now contracting whooping cough at a time when the disease is more serious than it otherwise would be.
Immunity obtained from the vaccine starts to wane after 5-10 years. Adults who were vaccinated when very young are becoming prone to the disease in later life, suggesting that the vaccine is simply suppressing the disease. Many countries have ceased using Pertussis vaccine because of the multiplicity of associated risks: encephalitis, seizures, brain damage, and death.
There are many common side effects of the Pertussis combination vaccine:
• constipation due to the aluminium content
• repeated coughs and colds
• coughs with great amounts of mucus, causing retching and vomiting (rather like whooping cough itself)
• a general lowering of the immune system as it strives to cope with the increasing numbers of foreign products injected into the body (18 vaccines by the time the baby is 4 months old)
• an increased sensitivity to outside pollutants resulting in asthma, hay fever and other auto-immune diseases.
. increase in mucous production in the body leading to glue ear, poor eating patterns, sleep disturbances.