BACKGROUND Pertussis continues to challenge medical professionals; recently described increases in incidence may be due to age-cohort effects, vaccine effectiveness, or changes in testing patterns. Toronto, Canada has recently experienced increases in pertussis incidence, and provides an ideal jurisdiction for evaluating pertussis epidemiology due to centralized testing. We evaluated pertussis ...

BACKGROUND We conducted a population-based, nation-wide, prospective study to identify who introduced pertussis into the household of infants aged 6 months admitted to the hospital for pertussis in the Netherlands. METHODS During the period 2006-2008, a total of 560 household contacts of 164 hospitalized infants were tested by polymerase chain reaction, culture, and serological examination to...

Clinical studies of component (“acellular”) pertussis vaccines have been undertaken in recent years, and several acellular vaccines have been used in Japan for 10 years. The Committee has reviewed these trials and related data and herein provides its assessment regarding the current status of the acellular vaccines and their possible use in the United States. The pertussis vaccines in current u...

Acellular pertussis vaccines, comprising mainly pertussis toxin and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and used successfully in Japan since 1981, were evaluated. Anti-pertussis toxin antibody responses in children immunized with acellular pertussis vaccines were comparable or higher than in convalescent-stage patients with pertussis, while those for anti-FHA were far higher. Reactogenicity was muc...

Intranasal administration of live attenuated Bordetella pertussis, from which the pertussis toxin gene has been deleted, has previously been shown to give rise to high levels of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against both the protective antigen filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and heterologous antigens genetically fused to FHA. Here, we extend these results by demonstrating that anti-FH...

INTRODUCTION We describe the pertussis epidemic, based only on confirmed whooping cough cases. We have analyzed data on the diagnosis, epidemiology and vaccine history in order to understand the factors that might explain the trends of the disease. METHODS A descriptive study of the confirmed pertussis cases reported during 2011 in the Vallès region (population 1,283,000). Laboratory criteria...

Pertussis toxin is a member of the AB(5) family of toxins and is composed of five subunits (S1 to S5) present in a 1:1:1:2:1 ratio. Secretion is a complex process. Each subunit has a secretion signal that mediates transport to the periplasm, where processing and assembly occur. Secretion of the assembled 105-kDa toxin past the outer membrane is mediated by the nine proteins encoded in the ptl o...

INTRODUCTION The coverage of pediatric pertussis vaccination in the Russian Federation is high, generally using a diphtheria, tetanus, and whole-cell pertussis vaccine in a 3-, 4.5-, and 6-month primary series and with a booster at 18 months of age. However, with no registered pertussis vaccines for adults, unvaccinated adolescents and adults can be a major source of infection of infants under ...

Background Pertussis is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable respiratory infection that is endemic worldwide. There are limited data regarding the occurrence of pertussis in travelers. The objective of this study is to identify travel-related pertussis cases reported to the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network. Methods This is a descriptive, retrospective analysis of GeoSentinel records from ...

Clinical studies of component (“acellular”) pertussis vaccines have been undertaken in recent years, and several acellular vaccines have been used in Japan for 10 years. The Committee has reviewed these trials and related data and herein provides its assessment regarding the current status of the acellular vaccines and their possible use in the United States. The pertussis vaccines in current u...