LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Pertussis: Deaths
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In the 1930s and 1940s, early concerns regarding pertussis vaccine were primarily those of efficacy. To understand the support for the early pertussis vaccine, it is important to characterize the morbidity and mortality associated with pertussis at the time vaccine became available. In Great Britain, pertussis incidence and mortality rates increased in the early 1940s: in 1940, 53,545 notifications and 678 deaths were reported, figures which more than tripled in 1941 (173,249 notifications and 2383 deaths) (Joint Committee, 1977).
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Transmission of pertussis in hospital settings has been documented in numerous reports. The number of patients and staff who have developed clinical pertussis indicates that these outbreaks have been of limited size, and no deaths due to nosocomial transmission have been reported; ... their impact has been large. SeeTable 1.
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Death was the first reaction to be associated with pertussis vaccine. In 1933, the Danish vaccine researcher Madsen described the deaths of two babies within a few hours after they had been vaccinated.
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Infants are at highest risk for acquiring pertussis-related complications. The most common complication--and the cause of most pertussis-related deaths--is bacterial pneumonia. Neurological complications, such as seizures... can develop as a result of the low oxygen level to the brain that may occur during the fits of coughing.
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