Early vaccines 'ward against whooping cough'

A US study claims bringing vaccination for whooping cough forward by a two weeks could better protect infants.

Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University researchers looked at US data going back to 2004 in their report to journal Paediatrics.

Currently, authorities in the US recommend children receive five doses of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine.

This is advised for children at two, four and six months with boosters at between 15 and 18 months and four to six years.

Researchers recommend administering the medication at six weeks instead of two months to prevent whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

Co-author of the study and paediatric professor Timothy Peters said: "Because pertussis so greatly threatens very young infants, the benefit of earlier vaccination may result in a significant decrease in severe pertussis disease nationally."

He said early vaccination would also be a useful way of managing outbreaks.

Before an immunisation programme was developed in the UK in the 1950s, the National Health Service reported an epidemic of whooping cough every three to four years.

News brought to you by Global Health TV, covering the issues of health in the developing world.