Whooping cough bacterium mutates to skirt vaccine

A mutation in the bacterium that causes whooping cough could be reducing the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Connie Lam’s research team analysed whooping cough bacteria samples collected in Australia from 1997 to 2012.

They found the bacterium is rapidly changing to lose one of three proteins targeted by the whooping cough vaccine.

In the 2012 whooping cough outbreak, 80% of infections were caused by the bacterium missing the protein.