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Re:Deadly Whooping Cough, Once Wiped Out, Is Back by skoob on Monday August 16, 2010 @05:42PM (#1609385)
I'll just quote Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516):

"The decrease in the number of disease carriers is vital to the prevention of bacterial infections. Vaccines are never 100% effective. Some people are genetically unable to respond to the vaccine, some have immunodeficiencies that preclude receiving vaccines or developing a response to the vaccine, some haven’t gotten around to vaccination or are too young to receive a vaccine. If you vaccinate a large number of people, besides preventing disease in an individual, it helps protect the vulnerable in a population. Vaccines prevent disease propagation."

"The vaccine [for whooping cough] is good, but not perfect. Vaccine efficacy is 64% for cases defined by mild cough, 81% for paroxysmal cough, and 95% for severe clinical illness (11). Note the vaccine is good for attenuating the disease, not preventing it entirely."

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