By Dr. Mercola
Pertussis vaccine in the combination DPT shot for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis that is supposed to prevent whooping cough has been associated with brain inflammation,  permanent brain damage and infant death since it was used on a mass basis in the U.S. starting in the late 1940’s.

A 1985 book DPT: A Shot in the Dark by Coulter and Fisher book described the questionable safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, which was replaced in the U.S. in 1996 by an acellular version (DtaP).

Recently, there have been reports of B. pertussis whooping cough outbreaks in California among both vaccinated and unvaccinated children and adults.

In fact, in 2010, the majority of confirmed or suspected reported whooping cough cases were in vaccinated people.

In an eye-opening report, the Watchdog Institute found that DtaP vaccine immunity only lasts about three years.

In addition, there is evidence that bacterial organism that causes whooping cough has evolved to become vaccine resistant, which is another big reason there is a rise in reported cases of B. pertussis whooping cough.

The DtaP vaccine, although reported to be less reactive, can still cause brain inflammation and brain damage in some individuals.

Powerful Profile of a Pertussis Vaccine Victim

While infants and young children are at greatest risk, NO ONE is exempt from the potential serious complications of vaccination, one of which brain inflammation after DPT or DtaP vaccinatoin.

In the video profile of pertussis vaccine injury above, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), interviews a Houston family with a history of vaccine reactions that spans three generations. Now, a 12 year old child in the family has become permanently disabled from a reaction to the DtaP vaccine that was given to her, along with 6 other vaccines, at age 15 months.
This family has chosen to share their heartbreaking story to help those, who have had the same experience, feel less alone, and to educate others about what it means to be vaccine injured. What happened to this family is a potent reminder of just how important it is to make well-informed decisions about vaccinations.

Infant Death Reports After DTP Vaccination in Africa

As discussed in Barbara’s featured video, vaccine reactions can run in families, causing some people to be more susceptible to damage than others. There may even be differences between the sexes in general. We don’t really know, as few studies have focused on teasing out such details.

However, a number of observational studies have suggested that many female infants in Africa below 12-months of age die after the “non-specific” effects of vaccination with diphtheria-tetanus toxoids and killed (whole-cell) Bordetella pertussis (DTwP).

According to a recent Danish study published in the Journal of Tropical Medicine:
“From an immunological point of view, we hypothesize that the adverse effects of DTwP vaccine may occur because of the Th2-polarising effect of the aluminium phosphate adjuvant in the vaccine and because intramuscular administration of the vaccine may cause chronic inflammation at the site of injection.

… Sexual dimorphism [sex related differences] affecting immune functions and vitamin A supplementation may influence both the deleterious and beneficial nonspecific effects of immunization.”

Previous Studies Also Show Increased Infant Mortality from DTP Vaccines

Earlier this summer, I posted a report on the research of Dr. Peter Aaby, who has spent more than 30 years studying the causes of excessively high child mortality in Guinea-Bissau. His research has been published in dozens of professional journals, yet few are taking any notice. With archives of more than 1 million research files to back up his findings, Dr. Aaby has published several papers questioning the safety of the DTP vaccine (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis).

Over the past decade alone he’s published 34 papers—all questioning the safety of the DTP. (For clarification, the DTP is the older whole cell pertussis vaccine associated with a high number of cases of convulsions, brain inflammation and permanent brain damage and was, in the US, replaced with the DTaP vaccine in 1996.) Dr. Aaby’s studies on the DTP vaccine given to infants in Guinea-Bissau showed that:

• A single dose of DTP vaccine not only doubled the mortality rate in infants, but more than quadrupled the mortality rate after the second and third DTP doses.
• There is a definite increased mortality risk to girls of combining DTP and measles vaccines.

Furthermore, just like the featured Danish study above mentions, vitamin A supplementation was found to influence mortality. Dr. Aaby discovered that girls were 41 percent more likely to die if they were given vitamin A at birth, while boys seemed to receive minor benefit from the supplement.

Taken together, the Danish study and Dr. Aaby’s work indicate that there are differences between the sexes that are completely ignored, and vaccines alone or in conjunction with vitamin supplementation may impact girls and boys very differently.

Whole Cell DPT Vaccine and Encephalopathy

In the groundbreaking 1985 book DPT: A Shot in the Dark by Harris Coulter and Barbara Loe Fisher, the authors described the ingredients in whole cell pertussis vaccine (DPT) that include a number of toxic components, with bioactive pertussis toxin (PT) and endotoxin being among the most lethal. Pertussis toxin is the component thought to be primarily responsible for the most feared complication of B. pertussis (whooping cough) and the pertussis vaccine: brain inflammation (encephalitis).

Brain inflammation and permanent brain damage was associated with whole cell pertussis vaccine from the time it started to be used in the U.S. and Europe in the 1920’s. Pertussis toxin is still used in labs to deliberately induce experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in lab animals during experiments. Another toxin in the whole cell pertussis vaccine – endotoxin – can cause shock and death in humans and animals.

Dangerous Preservatives and Components: Mercury and Aluminum

I’ve written quite a bit about the potential health dangers of vaccines containing toxic preservatives and adjuvants. One of the immune stimulating adjuvants in vaccines, including whole cell and acelullar pertussis vaccines, is aluminum.

In the featured Danish study, the researchers hypothesize that the aluminum adjuvant in DTP may be associated with the increased death rate in infant girls. (It is important to note that DTP vaccine also contains a mercury preservative (thimerosal) and mercury, like aluminum, is a known neurotoxin).

And, while the study focused only on African children, who may be more susceptible to vaccine damage due to poor nutrition and other environmental factors that can affect healthy immune function, it does highlight the fact that some vaccine components carry significant risks and may harm individual children, who could otherwise have gone on to live healthy lives. In the U.S., most childhood vaccines (except influenza vaccine in multi-dose vials) are now delivered in thimerosal-free single dose vials.

Some vaccines used in the U.S. and around the world contain mercury preservatives, including the ones listed below. You can find a complete list of mercury content in U.S.-licensed vaccines here. You can also calculate the amount of mercury in shots that your doctor recommends by using the Vaccine Ingredient Calculator.

The aluminum-derivatives used in the manufacturing of some vaccines have been shown to affect brain and immune function in lab animals and humans and a number of other vaccine ingredients also have also been associated with health problems in humans, such as:

The Dangers of the Pertussis Vaccine

Each vaccine brand has its own patented formulation and there are also differences between the vaccines licensed and released in Africa and Europe, versus those licensed and released in the U.S. Therefore, it’s difficult to know whether the two DPT studies featured in this article directly relate to the DPT vaccines given in countries outside of Africa.

That said, I believe that studies such as the ones mentioned here are like smoke signals, reinforcing the fact that there are significant health risks associated with vaccines, even though science still has a long way to go to pin down the exact biological mechanisms involved when vaccines cause injury and death.

The authors of the DPT study simply state that the deaths are due to the “non-specific effects” of vaccination, although their hypothesis is that the aluminum adjuvants may play an important role. As mentioned previously, DPT vaccine also contains pertussis toxin and endotoxin and there is inadequate scientific knowledge about exactly how those toxins interact with aluminum adjuvants and mercury preservatives to cause acute  inflammation in the body that may contribute to sudden infant death or encephalitis that that leads to chronic brain inflammation and permanent brain damage.

In the US, children are given multiple doses of an acellular pertussis vaccine (DtaP, Tdap) to try to prevent B. pertussis whooping cough. Acellular pertussis vaccines do not contain mercury preservatives and have reduced amounts of bioactive pertussis toxin and endotoxin. They appear to cause fewer cases of brain inflammation and permanent brain damage but are still not entirey safe for every child. Pertussis containing vaccines (DTaP) are given five times to children under age six, plus booster doses (Tdap) for teenagers and adults.

The question is, are whole cell and acellular pertussis vaccines as safe as they can be?

As Barbara Loe Fisher discussed in a previous article, pertussis vaccines can contain various amounts of bioactive toxins, including aluminum and mercury additives, and are known to have killed and brain injured some children. In fact, over half of the 2,480 awards for vaccine injury and death totaling $2 billion dollars made under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act involved the pertussis vaccine in DPT or DtaP shots.

There is also evidence in the scientific literature that suggests universal use of the pertussis vaccine for more than 60 years has put pressure on the B. pertussis organism to evolve and become vaccine resistant and there is evidence that whooping cough outbreaks are occurring in highly vaccinated countries, such as the U.S. as a result!

New Study Shows Protection from Whooping Cough Vaccination Fades in Three Years

In related news, another preliminary study (presented at the American Society for Microbiology conference in Chicago in September) has revealed that the acellular pertussis vaccine loses much of its effectiveness after just three years.  This is much faster than previously believed, and could also help explain the recent whooping cough outbreaks in the U.S.

According to CBSNews:
“[I]ts authors said the results need to be confirmed through more research. Nevertheless, the findings are likely to stir debate over whether children should get a booster shot earlier than now recommended.  “I was disturbed to find maybe we had a little more confidence in the vaccine than it might deserve,” said the lead researcher, Dr. David Witt…”

Unfortunately, stacking on additional booster shots is likely to make matters worse rather than better, especially in light of the fact that the mass use of existing pertussis vaccines has already led to vaccine resistant strains that are evolving and could become much more virulent. If anything, all of these findings taken together—the increased infant mortality in baby girls, the mutation factor, and the faster-than-thought wane in effectiveness—offer a potent illustration of how a perfect storm is created if we do not change how we think about public health policy that relies so heavily on mass vaccination.

Read the Full Article Here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/02/why-is-this-vaccine-causing-increased-infant-mortality.aspx