Authors:
Sheridan SL, Frith K, Snelling TL, Grimwood K, McIntyre PB, Lambert SB
Authors notes:
Expert Review of Vaccines 13(9): 1081-1106.
Keywords:
acellular pertussis vaccine, pertussis immunobiology, teenagers, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine efficacy, waning protection, whole-cell pertussis vaccine
Abstract:
The recent epidemics of pertussis (whooping cough) in parts of the USA and Australia have led to the largest numbers of annual cases reported in over half a century.
These epidemics demonstrated a new pattern, with particularly high rates of disease among pre-adolescents and early adolescents.
These high rates of pertussis coincided with the first cohorts vaccinated with purely acellular pertussis vaccine, which replaced whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine in the later 1990s in the USA and Australia.
Studies undertaken during these epidemics provide new evidence of more rapid waning of acellular pertussis-containing vaccines and longer-term protection from effective wP-containing vaccines.
There is evidence that receiving wP as at least the first dose of pertussis-containing vaccine provides greater and more long-lived protection, irrespective of the nature of subsequent doses.
This evidence will be reviewed together with the immunobiology associated with both vaccines, and the implications for pertussis control discussed.