New Griffith Health Institute Professor Focusing on Whooping Cough Vaccine

[caption id="attachment_7331" align="alignright" width="134"] Professor Keith Grimwood[/caption]
Higher rates of whooping cough being reported among older, vaccinated children in Queensland is one reason Griffith Health Institute's newcomer Professor Keith Grimwood is focused on investigating the pertussis vaccine.
working with the Institute’s Molecular Basis of Disease program on the Gold Coast, Professor Grimwood’s appointment is jointly supported by Gold Coast Health and Griffith and aims to improve research collaboration.
A former director of the Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute, he brings a wealth of research experience with him, relevant to his current study into the impacts of vaccines on preventable disease and gastrointestinal diseases.
Pertussis is otherwise known as the contagious and potentially deadly whooping cough and Professor Grimwood says while the vaccine is good particularly in young children, its duration of protection wanes much more rapidly than older vaccines. “After about five to ten years, its effectiveness is slowing and this will need addressing in the future.”
Professor Grimwood’s research also continues to focus upon Pseudomonas aeruginosa and lung infections in cystic fibrosis, as well as acute and chronic chest infections in Indigenous children. With colleagues in Darwin and Malaysia, he is turning attention to studying treatments of severe pneumonia in children in SouthEast Queensland, the Northern Territory and Malaysia