Whooping cough vaccination: historical, social and political controversies.
Abstract
New acellular whooping cough vaccines may have the effect of leading us to believe that infectious diseases such as whooping cough have declined in the context of particular historical and social conditions, and persist in the context of particular types of social inequalities.
The debates over the existence of damage from whole-cell whooping cough vaccine, and the respective risks of the vaccine and the disease are still unresolved owing to methodological limitations of studies on both sides of the argument.
One-sided health ‘education’ campaigns on whooping cough vaccine have questionable ethics, and suppression of dissenting views is counterproductive.
Health professionals and parents have a right to know the political context of the debate.
Description
Citation : Dyson, SM. (1995) Whooping cough vaccination: historical, social and political controversies. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 4 (2), pp.125-131
ISSN : 0962-1067
Research Group : Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell
Research Institute : Institute for Allied Health Sciences Research
Peer Reviewed : Yes