APRIL 5, 2018

Whooping Cough Growth Consequence of Waning Immunity, not Vaccine Failure

By Ethan Covey

Switching to the acellular pertussis vaccine was not a contributing factor in pertussis outbreaks, according to a researchers. Instead of vaccine failure, the researchers blamed waning vaccine immunity, as well as failures among some to get the complete vaccine series.

"Waning vaccine-conferred immunity, as opposed to vaccine failure to mount a full or even partial immune response, best explained the local rise in pertussis cases along with a historical gap in vaccination coverage.