THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 42 lines
Whooping cough is proving to be a persistent - and sometimes deadly - disease. It stubbornly continues to infect the community, leaving its victims literally gasping for breath.
Childhood vaccines against pertussis, the medical name for this strangling cough, are effective. Unfortunately, the pertussis vaccine can have rare but serious side effects, including seizures and brain damage. Fear of the vaccine has deterred many parents from immunizing their children.
On Wednesday the Food and Drug Adminstration approved a new ``acellular'' pertussis vaccine which promises the same level of immunization as the vaccine used for the past 50 years, without its side effects.
The new vaccine should be available immediately in pediatrician's offices.
Last month Virginia Beach reported an outbreak of whooping cough, with five cases confirmed there. Statewide, there have been 23 cases so far this year, and that number is expected to jump into the high 30s in the coming weeks as scientists confirm other suspected cases. All last year there were just 29 cases of whooping cough in Virginia.
Sad to say, infants and small children are the ones most likely to suffer from this disease, which sickens its victims for six or more weeks.
Virginia boasts a 78 percent immunization rate for 2-year-olds. With the new, safer vaccine, the number of immunized babies should increase.
The first shot for pertussis is administered at 2 months. Parents of infants that age should visit their pediatrician's office or a local health clinic to begin the immunization series.
The new vaccine, which will be marketed under the trade name ``Tripedia,'' has been used successfully in Europe and Japan for many years and has been given to older children in the United States.
Worldwide, whooping cough attacks 50 million children a year, killing about 350,000. In the United States immunizations have held the incidence of whooping cough down to about 4,000 confirmed cases annually. But many cases go undiagnosed and unreported.
With the availability of Tripedia, whooping cough should no longer menace American children, if their parents do their part. by CNB