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Pertussis vaccine becomes ineffective
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
American scientists have discovered that the acellular DTaP vaccine, which is administered in five stages and protects against three diseases at once (whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria), is ineffective.
DTaP vaccination is given at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15-18 months, and 4-6 years of age.
" Whooping cough remains a poorly controlled disease. The increase in the number of sick children, not newborns, but older children, indicates that post-vaccination immunity is weakening," the scientists say. "This is evidenced by the increase in registered cases of whooping cough among children aged seven to ten years."
Recent studies suggest that protection begins to wane after the fifth round of DTaP vaccination, but a full assessment of the vaccine's effectiveness requires comparing the health of children who were not vaccinated with those who were vaccinated.
Lara Maisgades, MD, PhD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and colleagues conducted a study to evaluate the association between whooping cough and five stages of the DTaP vaccine.
The study involved 682 children aged four to ten years with a presumptive or confirmed diagnosis of whooping cough. The control group included 2,016 healthy children.
As it turned out, vaccination was carried out less frequently in the first group of children. The full course of vaccination, consisting of five stages, was carried out 89% less frequently. But, nevertheless, the risk of developing the disease increased after the last stage of triple vaccination.
Within about one year, the effectiveness of a full, five-stage vaccination course reached 98.1%. After five years, it dropped to 71.2%.
“The increasing incidence of pertussis, changing epidemiology, and the demonstration of decreasing effectiveness of the DTaP vaccine over time raise concerns about the current childhood pertussis vaccination program. These concerns may prompt the search for new, alternative methods of protection that may provide longer-lasting efficacy and stable, long-lasting immunity,” says Dr. Maisgades.
"The strategy of finding and using more effective means of protection should be implemented as soon as possible," comments Evgeny Shapiro, MD, professor at Yale University. "It is very important to protect children and reduce the incidence rate. The highest mortality rates are observed among children under two months. Immunization of all pregnant women and children under one year of age is one of the main methods that will help solve this problem."
Health authorities will have to assess the feasibility and safety of different vaccination schedules. According to experts, the current vaccination schedule should be changed and vaccinations should be made more frequent.