Of note, 2015 was considered the year with the highest incidence of whooping cough since the introduction of the
acellular vaccine in Spain.
There is intriguing preliminary evidence from a study in baboons conducted by scientists at the Food and Drug Administration that suggests
acellular vaccine doesn't protect against pertussis infection and transmission, even though symptoms are prevented (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.
The old vaccine used whole cells of the pertussis bacterium, while the new
acellular vaccine uses only components of the disease-causing cells.
While both types of vaccine resulted in robust anti-body responses in the animals, those that received an
acellular vaccine had the bacteria in their airways for up to six weeks after vaccination and were able to spread the infection to unvaccinated animals.
A contributing factor could be the switch from the whole cell to the
acellular vaccine, which may have an effect on how long immunity persists.
While admitting that the whole-cell pertussis vaccine was crudely made and contained more than 3,000 pertussis proteins, Offit tells nothing of the saga of replacing this with the much safer
acellular vaccine, a story told in detail by David and Mark Geier.
Thus, Si has been the target of many studies as a potent candidate of
acellular vaccine against Bordetella pertussis, lacking the side effects of whole cell based ones.
The duration of protection from the
acellular vaccine has not yet been determined, but the efficacy appears similar to that of the whole cell vaccine (AAP, 1997a).
Acellular vaccine contains on the 2-4 antigens thought to be most important in developing immunity.
"What drove
acellular vaccine development was misinformation about encephalopathy," Cherry says.
The study found teens who were vaccinated with four doses of
acellular vaccine were at almost six times higher risk of pertussis than those who had received four doses of whole-cell vaccine.