Permanent immunity, pertussis?

[moss]

I'm reading vaccinations, a thoughtful parents' guide by aviva romm and she says on pg. 71

Pertussis has become a generally self-limiting disease that causes discomfort and inconvenience but little damage in a awell-nourished, healthy population. It also confers permanent immunity.

I thought i read somewhere that a person can get pertussis more than once, that it had different strains kindof like the common cold does? Anyone know for sure? Or can you direct me to a place where i can look it up?

[asher'smom]

Pertussis disease does not confer lifelong immunity from everything that I have read. I would also say that it may cause very young infants a bit more than discomfort and inconvenience. It can be very dangerous for children under 6 months of age. Although most older children and adults just have a nasty cough.

It is tricky though, many adults may have had pertussis and never knew it.

[moss]

Thanks, asher'smom, that's what i thought. I wish i had more extra money lying around so that i could buy a few of these books and keep them around so that i could look things up in them when i need to. As it is, i just borrow from the library and trust to my shakey memory to try to remember the important parts.

[Gitti]

Pertussis Vaccine

Unfortunately it is also the Pertussis vaccine that is most suspect in causing SIDS.
Breast feed your baby well past the age of 6 months and that is the best protection. After 6 months Pertussis is not quite so dangerous and the older the child is when he gets it, the easier it is on him.

From what I have read, Vit A and C should be given as soon as you suspect that he has been exposed to the disease.

[Tracy]

You know, I'm not sure it provides lifelong immunity and I'm not sure it does Not provide life long immunity...

I sort of think it might be under assessment...

I found this from WHO World Health Organization:

Even infection with Bordetella pertussis may not assure a long-lasting immunity; some serological observations suggest that past infection may not provide protection, and that the widely held belief that infection with B. pertussis confers lifelong immunity is probably wrong (Schmitt-Grohe 1995).

http://www.who.int/vaccines-diseases...svaccine.shtml


note that they say, "the widely held belief" and they say, "probably" wrong.

Which if you read it means Aviva is not exactly wrong since it is a widely held belief.

And I would take the fact that they say, "probably" wrong not just 'wrong" to mean they are not exactly sure... ..

[Gitti]