Whooping cough evolving into a superbug

Researchers have revealed the rise of evolving strains of the bacterium that causes whooping cough, a strain that is able to evade vaccine-generated immunity.

It appears the evolving strains make additional changes to better survive in their host, regardless of that person's vaccination status. The Australian researchers who ran the study also identified new antigens as potential vaccine targets.

See:

Laurence Don Wai Luu, Sophie Octavia, Chelsea Aitken, Ling Zhong, Mark J. Raftery, Vitali Sintchenko, Ruiting Lan. Surfaceome analysis of Australian epidemic Bordetella pertussis reveals potential vaccine antigens. Vaccine, 2020; 38 (3): 539 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.10.062

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)