Recent Outbreaks of Pertussis (Whooping Cough)

We’ve had over 90% baby vaccination rates for whooping cough vaccines for over 11 years…since 2000, AND they’ve included even more shots since then for the adolescents at the time… and yet more, after 2000… AND here we are with whooping cough in EVEN higher numbers than it was before 1960? Don’t you think that’s absolutely astonishing? …Australia, which has had over a 95% whooping cough vaccination rate since 2000, is having the largest outbreak in their history since pertussis vaccination started. The same is happening in USA, and their rate of vaccination is even higher than Australia. So what do you think is happening there?
- Hilary Butler

Whooping Cough (Bordetella pertussis)
Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable, violent coughing. The coughing can make it hard to breathe. A deep "whooping" sound is often heard when the patient tries to take a breath.

Unfortunately, there have been a number of whooping cough outbreaks recently and there is a lot of misinformation in the media about what is causing them.  Many people believe that all they have to do is get their children vaccinated and they will never get sick.  That false belief leads to confusion when they do sometimes get sick later in life from the illnesses they were vaccinated against as infants and young children. 

This post is not meant to bash vaccinations.  On the contrary, vaccinations are useful tools in the global medical fight against communicable disease.  However, they are not the only tool.  That one size fits all idea of "vaccinations = cure" is part of the reason that we are seeing outbreaks of illnesses that have been proclaimed to be cured. 

Pathogens enter our bodies as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protozoa.  When we vaccinate against them the idea is to allow the immune system to develop antibodies against "dead" strains of the illnesses we want our children to avoid getting.  That system works fairly well for most people but we are finding that some of the vaccines are not lasting as long as we thought they would.  We are vaccinating against more and more illnesses and we are also seeing more and more illnesses becoming resistant and/or the vaccines themselves not protecting as we predicted. 

What's Happening?

Most babies over the age of 6 months who get whooping cough are fully and "appropriately" vaccinated. It has been noted in a controlled study that over 86% of whooping cough in school age children occurs in the fully vaccinated!

When pertussis is left to take its normal course in the community, infants are protected by maternal antibodies and mother’s milk until they are old enough to process the disease on their own. After vaccines were introduced, this protection was vastly reduced, because the mothers were only having vaccine antibodies to pass along to their infants, and that defense is not long-lasting.
A recent study confirms that natural immunity to whooping cough lasts at least 30 years, whereas the immunity from a vaccine lasts 3 years, and after adult boosters, all antibodies have disappeared within a year. The risk of vaccination with unpredictable waning "immunity," and vaccine failure, is not as reliable as what nature has set forth.

Pertussis is primarily spread by vaccinated children, adolescents and adults, who have inadequate immunity. Conventional medicine’s own scientific studies demonstrate that bacterial clearance and immune response is not as efficient in the vaccinated, in particular with the acellular pertussis vaccine.

The vaccine primes the body to fight pertussis toxin and sometimes a couple of other cell antigens, in the blood, not the lung. It does this by stimulating an unnatural balance in immune cell populations. This incorrect immunity "learned" from the vaccine (referred to by Dr. James Cherry as "original antigenic sin"), is then the same way the body then responds to a subsequent infection. If the first stimulation was to vaccine antigens, then upon the exposure to the disease, the vaccinated person will mount an inferior response, compared to a child who has convalesced from a natural infection.

What Other Options Are There?
If started early enough, antibiotics such as erythromycin can make the symptoms go away quickly. Unfortunately, most patients are diagnosed too late, when antibiotics aren't very effective. However, the medicines can help reduce the patient's ability to spread the disease to others.

Homeopathic remedies can be used in cases of whooping cough, but they may not always be successful. The reason is that whooping cough presents as a common cold and many people do not diagnose whooping cough in time and get a good homeopathic constitutional. By the time people realize it is whooping cough and do get a successful remedy, there could have been some damage to the hairs (cilia) that line the windpipes.

Some practitioners report that after a homeopathic remedy there is still the possibility of whooping cough recurring, especially if the remedy used was suppressive, as acute remedies can sometimes be.
We are all different, so while there will be a couple of remedies that come up in every epidemic, there are also the refined remedies based on the person’s susceptibility. The more refined the remedy for the ill person, the more curative the remedy will be.  If the disease recurs, it says more about the method of prescription than the power of the remedy.

Vitamin D3 drops (3,000-4,000 IU daily) and high dose Vitamin C treatments are another option.  The goal would be to reach vitamin C saturation.  The starting dose in children is 200-375 mg per kg over 24 hours. If the severe coughing continues then your doses of vitamin C must be increased.  At this point you would need to increase the dose to 375 milligrams per kilo of body weight over the waking hours, as a starting dose. If you use pounds, know that one kilo is equal to 2.2 pounds.  You have to continue the vitamin C for up to three months.

Once you start using vitamin C, the mucus will thin out considerably. The first 24 hours may be a time when mucus seems to come out in great abundance, as it thins.

If your dose is right, within 8 hours there should be a two-third reduction in the coughing.

If you start to taper the vitamin C too soon, (before four weeks), you could see an increase in cough. You will then have to go back up to the old dose. It is probably not a good idea to even try stopping before 4 weeks. If your child develops loose bowels, then you may be giving too much. In this casecut back by 50% and monitor.

Just keep in mind; it does not stop the disease. Vitamin C clears away the toxins, and makes the coughing much, much milder, and increases the ability of the body to deal with the bacteria and develop immunity naturally.

The vitamin C neutralizes any toxins in the blood and should stabilize the child. If you are breastfeeding, you will have to take it yourself and/or give it until the coughing stops. It is easier and cheaper to give it directly to babies, rather than trying to guess how much is coming through breast milk. If you take it yourself, you can never be sure your baby is getting what it needs, because you might be more stressed than you think, and your body may be using up more than you estimate.

Again, the vitamin C will not kill the bacteria. The vitamin C will mobilize the neutrophils and phagocytes (the immune cells that process the infection) which grind to a halt without vitamin C, which is their fuel. The toxin forms a "barrier" to the immune system. In using vitamin C, you are clearing out the barrier and allowing the immune system to get in there easily and deal with the bacteria. It will take the same length of time to deal with the bacteria - the whole 100 days, but the child will NOT have as serious symptoms, because you are keeping the system clean, and the immune pathways functioning properly

If your child gets a cold from 6-9 months after having recovered from whooping cough, the child will start to "whoop," or cough, the same way as when processing the pertussis. The reason for that is that it takes a long time for the hairs to grow back. Any infection without proper hairs in the bronchioles, will result in mucus pooling. Because there has been loss of the hairs in the bronchioles, this mucus pooling is necessary to trigger a cough strong enough to get the mucus from the bottom of the bronchioles up to the top. Do not use cough suppressants or it can possibly end up as pneumonia

Vitamin C Toxicity?
Toxicity of anything can only occur with unused excess which acts as a "poison" in the body, and is retained. Vitamin C is never a poison in the body, because every single function of the body requires it, and when there is too much, the person has a one-time episode of loose bowels, as the excess is removed from the body. This is how you know you’ve had enough vitamin C.

There is much evidence indicating that vitamin C metabolism changes during infections and this may affect the relationship between doses and adverse effect meaning that if you are burning through vitamin C and your body is requiring more and more, you will not suffer from toxicity. You will suffer from lack of it!  It has been reported that people with serious infections can ingest over 50 g/day of vitamin C without gastric problems. 

So what now?
I think the first thing to take away from this is the fact that whooping cough is not as deadly as the media say.  The truth is that it is 1 in 200 babies who have received no treatment whatsoever might die.

It is a very uncomfortable disease and your child will suffer if they become infected by it.  The good news is that it can be treated.  There are choices for parents that have been proven to be effective and they are not dangerous or difficult. 

There is also the vaccine.  It does work for some children and is safer than the older pertussis vaccine that was used. It was called the "whole-cell" vaccine and had a high rate of severe side effects. Persistent, inconsolable crying occurred in one of every 100 doses, fever greater than 105 degrees occurred in one of every 330 doses, and seizures with fever occurred in one of every 1,750 doses. Due to negative publicity related to this vaccine, its use decreased in many areas of the world.  The current vaccine is safer but unfortunately is less effective at preventing the disease.

The simple fact is that each parent must use the information available to them and make the choice in how to deal with the disease for thier child.  Do your homework and make your own decision. 


Sources:
Suzanne Humphries, MD  http://drsuzanne.net/

http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/2011/12/20/special-report-the-vitamin-c-treatment-of-whooping-cough-suzanne-humphries-md/

www.vaccinationcouncil.org

Harnden, Anthony.2006. "Whooping cough in school age children with persistent cough: prospective cohort study in primary care."BMJ; 333, PMID 16829538

Wearing, HJ, Rohani P.2009. "Estimating the Duration of Pertussis Immunity Using
Epidemiological Signatures." PLoS Pathog. Oct;5(10). PMID 19876392

Harri Hemilä. 2006. "Safety of Vitamin C: Urban Legends",
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.