Pertussis persists despite widespread vaccination programs.

2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from an international group of researchers, "Bordetella pertussis continues to circulate even in populations where a high vaccine coverage of infants and children is achieved. Cases in adolescents and adults are reported with increasing frequency in many countries. Adults are a reservoir for infections in very young infants, in whom pertussis may be severe and life-threatening."

"The salient clinical feature of pertussis in adolescents and adults is prolonged coughing, and recognizing that pertussis does occur in these age groups is the most important step in its diagnosis," said C. H. Wirsing von Konig at Klinikum Krefeld in Germany and colleagues at Dalhousie University in Canada and the Insitut Pasteur in France. "A laboratory diagnosis can be made by bordetella-PCR from nasopharyngeal swabs or secretions and by detection of antibodies, mainly to pertussis toxin; laboratory diagnosis is, however, not well standardized. Vaccination of adolescents and adults is now possible with acellular pertussis vaccines, which are well tolerated, immunogenic, and effective. Adolescent boosters and the vaccination of health-care workers are already included in ...