GlaxoSmithKline announced new vaccine against whooping cough

http://newsfromrussia.com/science/2005/05/03/59561.html

23:30 2005-05-03
The Food and Drug Administration has just approved a booster shot that will prevent adolescents from contracting whooping cough.

The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline will be added to the present booster shot given against tetanus and diphtheria which children now receive between the ages of 10 and 18.

Whooping cough has been making a comeback of late. The disease is officially known as pertussis and is caused by a bacterial infection. Patients suffering from whooping cough often cough so hard they may break a rib. The name comes from the sound patients make when they are stricken with the disease and are gasping for air after coughing 15-20 times in a row

more...

Increase of outbreaks of Pertussis throughout the US communities... People not taking the vaccinations for fear of the side effects
now we have outbreaks!!!

...<snip>

The defendants in the case include:

Aventis Pasteur Inc.
Pfizer, Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck and Company, Inc.
Abbott Laboratories
American Home Products, dba Wyeth, Wyeth Laboratories, Wyeth-Ayerst
Baxter International, Inc.
Eli Lilly Company, Inc.
Gallipot, Inc.
Integra Biosciences, Inc.
Medisca, Inc.
Meridian Chemical and Equipment, Inc.
Beverly Wittkopp, M.D., a pediatrician whose practice is in Oregon.
Also named were a number of "John Doe" corporations who may have formulated, manufactured, distributed, supplied or sold thimerosal.

<more>
<link> http://autism.about.com/library/weekly/aa071801a.htm

<other links>
http://www.mercola.com/2004/oct/30/mercury_vaccines_medicine.htm

All vaccines have a risk, but a much lower risk than not giving the vaccine.

If you have ever seen a kid with whooping chough, it should scare one into giving the vaccine. But it is rare, so folks don't think it will happen to their kid.

All told, it is a pretty interesting example of the free rider problem in game theory.

available at drug stores again. It's apparently the same chemical, a mercury derivative, that's added to vaccines. I mean, if it's safe enough to inject, then surely it's safe enough to use on a minor scrape.

By contrast, a tube of Neosporin is much more expensive.

My point is the hypocrisy that always leads money uphill, regardless of health.

(a small percentage of the population) the problem is that the childhood vaccine wears off in adolescence and whooping cough in teens and adults is usually misdiagnosed, so people who think they just have a nasty cough while thye're getting over the flu (or something) pass it around. That's how LeftyKid caught it. His sitter had it, had already been assured by the doctor he was just getting over the flu and not contagious, and got my kid sick. I had to send him back to the doctor, after explaining to him that I was pretty darn sure he had given LK pertussis and I wanted him to please go back and get a formal diagnosis.

You really can't blame the small percentage of avoiders when the majority of the population is unprotected and most doctors aren't diagnosing the problem.

NASTY,NASTY,NASTY.... Only once or twice a day now. At it's peak I would cough so much I barfed (4 times)!!! My kids got it too, but because they had been immunized w/in 10 years it was much more mild. 3 of my adult friends got it as well.

EDITED to add that I had to take Cipro for 10 days (YUCK).

Yes friend sent her two month old to the ICU with it... all her older children had it...

Its been kept quiet by the public but its out there!!!

this is why they are going to vaccine all the older people!!!

We have no immunity to this at all!!!

This was a horrid ordeal. The only good thing about it was that I felt OK except for the times I was hacking my lungs out.

We know about it out here, but does anyone else?

Here's why you want to be vaccinated.

http://www.whoopingcough.net/symptoms.htm

...let me know.