New Whooping Cough Drugs Backed

New vaccines for preventing whooping cough in infants should be approved for use in the United States, according to an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The authors commented on two studies published in the journal’s Feb. 8 issue that found that vaccines made by SmithKline Beecham, Chiron Corp. and Connaught Laboratories were effective for preventing whooping cough in infants and caused fewer side effects than current vaccines.

The three companies are seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of the new vaccines for use in infants.

Though traditional vaccines significantly reduced the frequency of whooping cough in the United States, the vaccines can cause serious side effects, including convulsions and brain damage in a small percentage of infants. More parents are familiar with the less serious side effects of fevers, sore muscles and irritability, which affect as much as 50% of the infants who receive the vaccine.

Before vaccination became routine, there were about 260,000 cases of whooping cough and 9,000 deaths a year in the United States. By 1976, there were only about 1,010 cases and seven deaths a year.