Tdap
| Combination of | |
|---|---|
| Diphtheria vaccine | Vaccine |
| Pertussis vaccine | Vaccine |
| Tetanus vaccine | Vaccine |
| Legal status | |
| Legal status |
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| Identifiers | |
| ChemSpider |
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DPT (also DTP and DTwP) refers to a class of combination vaccines against three infectious diseases in humans: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus. The vaccine components include diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and killed whole cells of the organism that cause pertussis (wP).
DTaP and Tdap refer to similar combination vaccines in which the component with lower case "a" is .
Also available is the DT or TD vaccine, which lacks the pertussis component. The Tdap vaccine is currently recommended by the CDC and covers tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (CDC Vaccines, 2013).
In the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, the abbreviation DTP refers to a combination vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and poliomyelitis. In the Netherlands, pertussis is known as kinkhoest and DKTP refers to a combination vaccine against diphtheria, kinkhoest, tetanus, and polio.
The usual course of childhood immunization in the USA is five doses between 2 months and 15 years. For adults, separate combination (booster) vaccines are used that adjust the relative concentrations of their components.
In the latter 20th century, vaccinations helped to comprehensively reduce the incidence of childhood pertussis in the United States. Despite this, reported instances of the disease increased twenty-fold in the early 21st century, resulting in numerous fatalities. Over this time, many parents declined to vaccinate their children against the disease for fear of side effects. In 2009, Pediatrics concluded the largest risk among unvaccinated children was not the contraction of side effects, but rather the disease that the vaccination aims to protect against.
DTP was licensed in 1949.
DTaP and Tdap are both combined vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The difference is in the dosage, with the upper case letters meaning higher quantity. The names are easy to confuse, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices reports hundreds of cases of accidental mix-ups.
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Wikipedia