Camille
Locht, the Director of the Centre for Infection and Immunity of Lille, says
that Pertussis is a “wrongly forgotten disease”. This deadly sickness kills
nearly 300,000 children a year worldwide and the mortality rate is still increasing.
The Child – Innovace European research program is starting the development of a
new vaccine that is going to be given out to help protect the young from this disease.
The
program is planning on creating a vaccine that will be taken through an intranasal
injection. This vaccine will also help to fight off two other respitory
pathogens: Bordetella pertussis and respiratory syncytial virus.
These three pathogens are mostly found in kids aged from 0-6 months. They have practiced the
vaccine on humans, giving them the live bacteria through the nose.
The Phase I trials in humans took place in Sweden. The vaccination
was abandoned in the country for several years. These trials main ideas were to
record all symptoms that occurred in the patient. A monitoring committee
watched them. Three different doses of the vaccines were tested: a low,
intermediate and high dose. Results show that the vaccine colonized the nasal
mucosa best at the high dose. Experimentation is not yet complete but they are
hoping to administer higher volumes to increase colonization of nasal mucus and
they also hope to improve stability of the vaccine.
This article made me make a connection with Smallpox and Edward Jenner. Doctors and scientists are pushing for people to get the vaccination against pertussis yet some people don't believe in the works of it and are being ignorant to the fact that it does help prevent the disease. Many young children are prone to catch this illness but if they are protected against it, there is no way that they would attain it. Although you may be wary of the vaccination, getting it is the best thing for your child. The many experiments that have been done like the one above show the positive effects of getting vaccinated.
Friday 10 January 2014
This is a really interesting article. I also agree that it is very important for children to be vaccinated against this disease but I can see why some parents might be wary of getting their children vaccinated. The fact that experimentation is not yet completed seems a little concerning to vaccinate young children. Although the experimentation is not completed, I agree that it is better for the greater good to protect children even with the risks.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting, mainly because I had never heard of this disease even though it kills so many children yearly. It is good that the test results have been positive... hopefully the future of this vaccine is promising!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if it is the same in Europe but there is a Pertussis vaccination campaign in the US. I constantly see the commercials urging people to get the shot in order to protect children. I do think that it is a good idea, however, that a nasal version of the vaccine is being developed. Many more people would get the vaccine now because it would be less painful, just as more people get the flu vaccine in mist form.
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