New Strain, Old Problem

There is a new explanation of why we are seeing more cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in spite of high immunization rates among children:  the vaccine does not appear to be very effective against a new strain that was initially isolated in Japan, Finland, and...

Pertussis Epidemic in 2012

From this week’s New England Journal of Medicine:  So what are the causes of today’s high prevalence of pertussis? First, the timing of the initial resurgence of reported cases (see graph) suggests that the main reason for it was actually increased...