Whooping couch vaccine being developed by British researchers
Researchers in Southampton are leading the UK arm of a Europe-wide study to create a replacement for the current vaccine which does not offer lifelong protection and has become less effective over time.
The condition, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the lungs and airways caused by a bacterium called Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis). It is spread through coughs and sneezes of someone with the infection.
It causes repeated coughing that can last for two to three months or more, and affects mainly babies under the age of six months - the group most vulnerable to severe and sometimes life-threatening respiratory and neurological complications which require hospital admission.