{"id":77531,"date":"2014-12-27T07:33:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T07:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=77531"},"modified":"2014-12-27T07:33:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-27T07:33:50","slug":"whooping-cough-evolving-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/12\/whooping-cough-evolving-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Whooping cough ‘evolving fast’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Analysis of strains from 2012 shows the parts of the pertussis bacterium that the vaccine primes the immune system to recognise are changing.<\/p>\n
It may have “serious consequences” in future outbreaks, UK researchers state in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n
But experts stressed the vaccine remains highly effective in protecting the most vulnerable young babies.<\/p>\n
There has been a global resurgence of whooping cough in recent years.<\/p>\n
In 2012, there were almost 10,000 confirmed cases in England and Wales – a dramatic increase from the last “peak” of 900 cases in 2008.<\/p>\n
The outbreak led to 14 deaths in babies under three months of age – the group who are most vulnerable to infection.<\/p>\n
Rising figures prompted health officials to recommend vaccination of pregnant women so immunity could be passed to their newborns – a strategy that a recent study showed was working well.<\/p>\n
Evolving strains<\/span><\/p>\n But there has been much debate among experts about whether the introduction of a new vaccine in 2004 has been a factor in rising rates of whooping cough.<\/p>\n One issue is that immunity from the newer acellular vaccine – which contains specific proteins from the surface of the bacteria – does not seem to last as long as the previous whole cell version, leaving teenagers and adults lacking protection.<\/p>\n In the latest study, researchers analysed the genes coding for the proteins on the surface of the pertussis bacterium responsible for the UK outbreak.<\/p>\n They found proteins being targeted by the vaccine were mutating at a faster rate than other surface proteins not included in the vaccine.<\/p>\n Potentially it means the bacteria is changing quickly to get around immune system’s defences put in place with immunisation.<\/p>\n