Whooping Cough Linked to Shorter Life Expectancy

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/health/whooping-cough-linked-to-shorter-life-expectancy.html

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People who are born during whooping cough epidemics and survive them are more likely to die prematurely later in life, according to a new study analyzing 158 years of Swedish population data.

Lung infections in infancy may do subtle, permanent damage that make adult infections more life-threatening, the authors suggested.

Wealthy countries nearly eradicated whooping cough, also known as pertussis, with vaccines introduced in the 1950s. But protection has waned — possibly because of safer but weaker new vaccines — and cases are soaring. Last year, the United States had its biggest outbreak in 60 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Swedish study, by Lund University researchers, analyzed birth and death records collected in five rural parishes from 1813 to 1968. Over that time period, average life expectancy rose from 38 to nearly 80.

Looking for factors that affected that trend, researchers compared the life expectancies of babies born during epidemics of whooping cough, measles and scarlet fever with those born during periods of very high food prices. (Sweden had three famines in the 19th century.)

While measles and scarlet fever killed many children, the survivors had nearly normal life expectancies. But boys born during whooping cough epidemics were 40 percent more likely to die earlier than normal. Girls born during these epidemics were 20 percent more likely to die earlier, and they also were more likely to later have miscarriages and have children who died in infancy.

The results suggest that the long-term dangers of whooping cough should be studied and that women who had it in infancy should be monitored in pregnancy, said the lead author, Luciana Quaranta, a doctoral candidate at Lund University.