Vaccination and prophylaxis | Whooping cough

Vaccination and prophylaxis

According to the recommendation of the STIKO (Permanent Vaccination Commission of the Robert Koch Institute), the whooping cough vaccination (also: pertussis vaccination) should be given as part of basic immunization together with the vaccination against diphtheria and tetanus. In principle, this should be done within the first year of life (in exceptional cases also later). As a rule, the vaccination is administered by the paediatrician within the framework of the U-examinations after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 11th -15th month of life.

In childhood and adolescence, two further vaccinations should be given as a booster, usually in the fifth to sixth year of life and in the twelfth to seventeenth year of life. A booster vaccination may also be recommended for adults, for example pregnant women or persons who have regular contact with newborns. Although vaccination of the surrounding area does not definitively protect newborns from infection, as vaccinated persons without themselves becoming ill can also be carriers, it does considerably reduce the probability of infection.

The booster in adults should be given at the earliest ten years after the last vaccination. Vaccination can still be useful even after an infection has been passed, since the survived infection only protects against a new infection for about ten to twenty years. After this time, the immune system loses the information it has stored about the pertussis pathogen.

In Germany, the vaccine is acellular, i.e. it does not contain any killed or weakened bacterial cells, but only various building blocks of the bacteria (e.g. proteins from the bacterial surface, which the immune system can use to recognize the pathogen).The vaccine also contains pertussis toxin, a substance produced by the pertussis bacteria and considered the main cause of the typical symptoms. However, the doses are so small that the pertussis toxin has no harmful effect on the body, but is merely the template for the formation of antibodies that protect against the poison.

The vaccine is said to be highly effective with very few side effects, which is why it is now generally recommended for vaccination. If infants or children are not vaccinated and have come into contact with an infectious agent, so-called chemoprophylaxis can be carried out. An antibiotic is administered to prevent or mitigate the onset of the disease.