|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whooping cough immunity long-lasting, study shows
Immunity to whooping cough lasts at least 30 years on average, much longer than previously thought, an analysis by Professor Pejman Rohani and his former postdoctoral fellow, Helen Wearing, shows. The study was published in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens in October 2009.
Once thought to be under control, thanks to widespread childhood vaccination, whooping cough (pertussis) has been on the rise since the 1980s in the United States and several other countries. This increase has fueled concerns about the effectiveness of current vaccination practices and raised the question of whether whooping cough can ever be eradicated.
One leading idea for the recent surprising increase in cases is that the immunity conferred by vaccination or previous exposure wears off after some time. Because these are tough questions to address clinically, the researchers took a different approach, using mathematical models to explore various scenarios and comparing the predictions generated by those models to data on whooping cough incidence. (more)
U-M News Service press release |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ammerlaan awarded Teagle Fellowship
Brower Fellowship awarded
