Encephalopathy Following Pertussis Vaccine Prophylaxis

In a recent communication, Byers and Moll¹called attention to the occurrence of manifestations of serious cerebral damage which they have encountered in a number of children as a reaction to the administration of prophylactic pertussis vaccine. The close similarity of the clinical features among more recently observed cases prompted them to reinvestigate the clinical records of similar material at the Children's Hospital in Boston for the preceding period of ten years. They have analyzed clinical histories of 15 children who, although normal prior to receiving an injection of the vaccine, manifested alarming symptoms such as convulsions and listlessness shortly afterward and in the subsequent course exhibited residuals in the form of arrested development and recurrent convulsions. In 12 of these children the vaccine²was known to have been given in the usual dose. The reaction appeared after the first, second or third dose and in one instance