title: High prevalence of antibody titers against Bordetella pertussis in an adult population with prolonged cough.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Anastasios M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kapaskelis
authors.forename: Evridiki K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Vouloumanou
authors.forename: Petros I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Rafailidis
authors.forename: Panagiota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hatzopoulou
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nikita
authors.forename: Matthew E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Falagas
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D010567:Pertussis Vaccine; D010566:Virulence Factors, Bordetella