Short course: Vaccines power wanes after last dose: study

Vaccines power wanes after last dose: study

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Vaccines power wanes after last dose: study

Before the age of 7,children usually receive five doses of DTaP,the combination vaccine that protects against diphtheria,tetanus and pertussis. But now researchers have found that the protective power of the vaccine declines rapidly after the final dose. The study,published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that in 5-year-olds who had been vaccinated,rates of pertussis infection were much lower than in younger children who had fewer doses. But after the age of 5,infection rates increased,and rates among 1-year-olds were 10 times higher. The researchers estimate that after the fifth dose,the risk of pertussis infection increases by an average of 42 percent per year. But the current DTaPs are better than none and parents should continue to vaccinate their children, said lead author,Dr Nicola P Klein. There is also a booster shot,called Tdap,that can be given to adults,children older than 11,and children ages 7 to 10 who are undervaccinated.

Life span shrinks for least educated Caucasians

For generations of Americans,it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the countrys least-educated whites,an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990. Four studies in recent years identified modest declines,but a new one that looks separately at Americans lacking a high school diploma found disturbingly sharp drops in life expectancy for whites in this group. The reasons for the decline remain unclear,but researchers offered possible explanations,including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites,higher rates of smoking among less educated white women,rising obesity,and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance.