Lack of Association Between Pertussis Vaccination and Symptoms of Asthma and Allergy

To the Editor. —Previous reports 1 suggesting that pertussis vaccination considerably increases the risk for bronchial asthma in schoolchildren prompted us to add a structured interview to all the families in a double-blind study of per tussis vaccines to assess whether pertussis vaccination might influence symptoms in early childhood consistent with later development of allergic disease. Pertussis immunization elicits an IgE response in animals. 2 Children may also show pertussis IgE after pertussis infection and vaccination, but clinical consequences are unclear. 3 Retrospective data support a weak effect of pertussis infection on development of sensitization. 4 Since 1979, pertussis vaccination has not been included in the Swedish vaccine program. The Swedish Pertussis Vaccine Efficacy Trial 1 5 recruited 9829 infants born in 1992. The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. The study was performed double-blind, and three fourths of the infants were