High prevalence of antibody titers against Bordetella pertussis in an adult population with prolonged cough.
BACKGROUND
Pertussis is mainly considered as a disease of childhood. However, an increasing number of adults with infection due to Bordetella pertussis is reported in the literature.


METHODS
A retrospective cohort study of patients with a new origin-cough of more than 3 weeks duration who were evaluated by an internal medicine-infectious diseases group practice in Athens, Greece during the period 10/2005-12/2007 was performed; patients underwent serological testing for B. pertussis infection.


RESULTS
Five hundred and fifty-four adult patients underwent B. pertussis serological testing from whom 441 had a single IgM/IgG measurement. The percentage of seropositivity in the IgM/IgG B. pertussis serological testing was 71.5% in the population studied (397/554 patients; for patients who had IgM/IgG B. pertussis serological testing in more than one occasions, only the result of the first IgM/IgG measurement was taken into account for this analysis). For the subset of patients with a single IgM/IgG measurement, the percentage of seropositivity against B. pertussis was 70.7% (312/441 patients).


CONCLUSIONS
B. pertussis infection should be considered as a significant pathogenic infection in a significant proportion of adult patients presenting a new origin-cough of more than 3 weeks duration. In order to reduce the burden of pertussis disease in adults as well as transmission of pertussis in children, booster vaccination is recommended for adolescents and adults.
Kapaskelis
Anastasios M
AM
Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Athens, Greece.
Vouloumanou
Evridiki K
EK
Rafailidis
Petros I
PI
Hatzopoulou
Panagiota
P
Nikita
Dimitra
D
Falagas
Matthew E
ME
D000328:Adult; D001886:Bordetella pertussis / Q000276:immunology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003371:Cough / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007117:Immunization, Secondary; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D010567:Pertussis Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D010566:Virulence Factors, Bordetella / Q000276:immunology; D014917:Whooping Cough / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*
D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D010567:Pertussis Vaccine; D010566:Virulence Factors, Bordetella