title: The importance of pertussis in older adults: a growing case for reviewing vaccination strategy in the elderly.
abstract: Pertussis or whooping cough is increasingly being shown to be a respiratory infection affecting the elderly and a significant percentage of older people infected with Bordetella pertussis experience considerable morbidity and even mortality. However, current knowledge of burden of disease is limited largely to passive surveillance data with little well-designed active surveillance to better ascertain the true burden of pertussis in the elderly, to inform vaccination strategies. The current review aims to identify gaps in knowledge to inform policy considerations relating to pertussis vaccination among the elderly.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia. i.ridda@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Iman
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ridda
authors.forename: Jiehui Kevin
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Raina MacIntyre
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McIntyre
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001886:Bordetella pertussis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014611:Vaccination / Q000379:methods; D014917:Whooping Cough / Q000453:epidemiology*