Can the pertussis vaccine cause brain damage?
The original pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine was made from killed bacteria and was sometimes blamed for causing brain damage in infants and young children. Many studies on the pertussis vaccine have been conducted and there has been no proof that it caused brain damage. In 1997 a new version of the vaccine called acellular pertussis was introduced in Canada. This vaccine produces fewer side effects than the original whole cell vaccine because it is made from chemically purified pertussis proteins, rather than dead intact bacteria.
