For Patients/Families

Acellular
Generally, this is a word that means without cells. In the context of pregnancy and early childhood it usually has reference to acellular pertussis vaccine. The original pertussis vaccine (DTP) included parts of the whole bacterial that causes pertussis. Recent research has shown that only certain parts of the bacterial cell are required to produce immunity; not the whole bacterial cell. The new vaccine is called an since it contains only those proteins that are important for producing immunity and not the whole bacterial cell. The acellular vaccine has fewer side effects than the old, whole-cell vaccine and is the recommended type of vaccine for preventing.