Pertussis

Whooping cough sounds like one of those old-fashioned diseases that only the heroines of Victorian novels get. But whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious and sometimes fatal illness that has been on the rise in the United States in recent years, says Virginia Keane, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and president of the Maryland chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics. What is whooping cough? A bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis.

As children, our parents take us to the doctor every year, like clockwork. As we get older, regular checkups often fall by the wayside. But they shouldn't. For adults, checkups, preventative screenings and vaccinations are vital to living healthy, happy lives. According to Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director for adult immunization at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, numerous screening procedures and vaccines are available to adults, but they are often underused. "National vaccination rates are low," she says, "even for vaccines that have been recommended for many years.

Shares in North American Vaccine Inc. tumbled more than 16 percent yesterday as word hit Wall Street that the Food and Drug Administration has requested more information about its whooping cough vaccine, Certiva.The stock closed at $18.56, down $3.62 a share.Neither the FDA nor the Beltsville-based company would disclose what information has been requested. But Dr. Sharon Mates, the company's chief executive officer, said the company wasn't asked to conduct additional costly and time-consuming human clinical trials to show that the drug is safe or effective.

When an unvaccinated child in Dr. Daniel Levy's practice came down with whooping cough this year, the Owings Mills pediatrician made a decision: He would no longer see patients whose parents refused to have them immunized against that disease or others, such as measles and meningitis. The risks posed to his other patients were too great, Levy reasoned. And he felt he couldn't give adequate care to children whose parents rejected some of his most basic advice: That routine childhood vaccines are safe and are the key to preventing diseases that used to kill many before they could reach adulthood.

A Maryland company has won marketing approval in Sweden for a new, powerful vaccine to protect children against whooping cough and, as a result, now has an edge in the race to grab a share of the estimated $800 million U.S. and European market for the new-generation vaccines.North American Vaccine, based in Beltsville, won approval yesterday to market its vaccine for whooping cough, the dreaded disease also known as pertussis.On news of the approval, the company's stock rose $1.125 per share to $15.50, a 12-month high.

It started out much like any winter cold. But, soon enough, 16-year-old Zachary Graham couldn't stop coughing. And coughing. When doctors finally diagnosed Zach a few weeks later, they told him that his hacking fits - which sometimes made it hard to breathe and sleep - were caused by a disease the teenager thought he couldn't get: whooping cough. "When I was diagnosed, my parents and I were surprised that I had it because I had been vaccinated against the disease," said Graham, a high school junior from Sunapee, N.H., whose illness kept him off the ski slopes and away from his friends.

As children, our parents take us to the doctor every year, like clockwork. As we get older, regular checkups often fall by the wayside. But they shouldn't. For adults, checkups, preventative screenings and vaccinations are vital to living healthy, happy lives. According to Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director for adult immunization at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, numerous screening procedures and vaccines are available to adults, but they are often underused. "National vaccination rates are low," she says, "even for vaccines that have been recommended for many years.

When an unvaccinated child in Dr. Daniel Levy's practice came down with whooping cough this year, the Owings Mills pediatrician made a decision: He would no longer see patients whose parents refused to have them immunized against that disease or others, such as measles and meningitis. The risks posed to his other patients were too great, Levy reasoned. And he felt he couldn't give adequate care to children whose parents rejected some of his most basic advice: That routine childhood vaccines are safe and are the key to preventing diseases that used to kill many before they could reach adulthood.

Washington.--Politicians and the public are recoiling at revelations of government-sponsored nuclear experiments on unwitting victims in the early post-war period. But rogue science conducted with official blessings is not merely a historical relic. It continues today, despite a multitude of safeguards designed to assure compliance with rules of informed consent and the first canon of medicine: Do no harm.Consider, for example, trials of vaccines for pertussis, or whooping cough, financed last year in Italy and Sweden by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, renowned as the world's leading biomedical-research institution.

Drug giant Abbott Laboratories said yesterday that it has begun marketing Certiva, a child vaccine developed and manufactured by North American Vaccine Inc. of Beltsville, to pediatricians and other health care providers.Certiva is the first North American Vaccine product to hit the U.S. market.Abbott has rights to market the vaccine, which provides protection against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough, to the private physician and managed-care markets in the United States under an agreement with North American Vaccine.

Whooping cough sounds like one of those old-fashioned diseases that only the heroines of Victorian novels get. But whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious and sometimes fatal illness that has been on the rise in the United States in recent years, says Virginia Keane, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and president of the Maryland chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics. What is whooping cough? A bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis.

It started out much like any winter cold. But, soon enough, 16-year-old Zachary Graham couldn't stop coughing. And coughing. When doctors finally diagnosed Zach a few weeks later, they told him that his hacking fits - which sometimes made it hard to breathe and sleep - were caused by a disease the teenager thought he couldn't get: whooping cough. "When I was diagnosed, my parents and I were surprised that I had it because I had been vaccinated against the disease," said Graham, a high school junior from Sunapee, N.H., whose illness kept him off the ski slopes and away from his friends.

Drug giant Abbott Laboratories said yesterday that it has begun marketing Certiva, a child vaccine developed and manufactured by North American Vaccine Inc. of Beltsville, to pediatricians and other health care providers.Certiva is the first North American Vaccine product to hit the U.S. market.Abbott has rights to market the vaccine, which provides protection against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough, to the private physician and managed-care markets in the United States under an agreement with North American Vaccine.

North American Vaccine Inc. yesterday won a long-awaited Food and Drug Administration approval to market its new whooping cough vaccine for children in the United States.The approval, which took the Beltsville-based company almost two years to land, marks the first U.S. product approval for the 12-year-old biotechnology company."This is really big for us," said Stephen M. Keith, vice president for sales and marketing for North American. "Clearly, the U.S. is a big market, and we're confident the vaccine will do well gaining market share."

Shares in North American Vaccine Inc. tumbled more than 16 percent yesterday as word hit Wall Street that the Food and Drug Administration has requested more information about its whooping cough vaccine, Certiva.The stock closed at $18.56, down $3.62 a share.Neither the FDA nor the Beltsville-based company would disclose what information has been requested. But Dr. Sharon Mates, the company's chief executive officer, said the company wasn't asked to conduct additional costly and time-consuming human clinical trials to show that the drug is safe or effective.

Abbott Laboratories, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, said yesterday that it will pay $42 million for the rights to market Beltsville-based North American Vaccine's new whooping cough vaccine in the United States.The deal marks the first major marketing partner 5-year-old North American has landed.The company's pertussis -- or whooping cough -- vaccine has not yet been approved for marketing in the United States. It would be included in a vaccine that also protects against diphtheria and tetanus.

Cases of whooping cough, once among the most feared of all childhood diseases, are climbing in Maryland and elsewhere partly because of parents' complacency.Although public health authorities do not foresee epidemics approaching the huge ones of old, doctors say many infants and young children are needlessly at risk because they are slow to get their full complement of shots."The majority of the children who are getting this disease and are being hospitalized are inadequately immunized," said Dr. Neal A. Halsey, a specialist in pediatric infections at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

North American Vaccine Inc. yesterday won a long-awaited Food and Drug Administration approval to market its new whooping cough vaccine for children in the United States.The approval, which took the Beltsville-based company almost two years to land, marks the first U.S. product approval for the 12-year-old biotechnology company."This is really big for us," said Stephen M. Keith, vice president for sales and marketing for North American. "Clearly, the U.S. is a big market, and we're confident the vaccine will do well gaining market share."

A Maryland company has won marketing approval in Sweden for a new, powerful vaccine to protect children against whooping cough and, as a result, now has an edge in the race to grab a share of the estimated $800 million U.S. and European market for the new-generation vaccines.North American Vaccine, based in Beltsville, won approval yesterday to market its vaccine for whooping cough, the dreaded disease also known as pertussis.On news of the approval, the company's stock rose $1.125 per share to $15.50, a 12-month high.

Washington.--Politicians and the public are recoiling at revelations of government-sponsored nuclear experiments on unwitting victims in the early post-war period. But rogue science conducted with official blessings is not merely a historical relic. It continues today, despite a multitude of safeguards designed to assure compliance with rules of informed consent and the first canon of medicine: Do no harm.Consider, for example, trials of vaccines for pertussis, or whooping cough, financed last year in Italy and Sweden by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, renowned as the world's leading biomedical-research institution.