{"title":"Resurgence of pertussis: whopping the '100-day cough'.","authors":"Celia D C Christie","doi":"10.1097/MOP.0000000000001486","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Against the WHO's report of 84% diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) primary vaccination coverage globally, the resurgence of pertussis (whooping cough), contributing factors and measures to control it are described.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>USA and China, with 94-97% primary DPT immunization uptake, reported a 6-fold and 65-fold increase in pertussis between two time periods in 2023 and 2024. The global post-COVID-19 pertussis epidemic is trending towards a shift from infants towards older persons. Macrolide resistance is prevalent in 98% of Bordetella pertussis strains in China and is now reported from other countries. Pertactin-deficient mutant acellular pertussis vaccine-evasive strains are now transmitted in older children and adults. Pertactin-producing B. pertussis is causing fulminant pertussis in newborns whose mothers were not immunized in pregnancy and in under-immunized infants. Circulating epidemic strains of B. pertussis were discordant to those contained in whole-cell (Bp137) pertussis vaccine. The pertussis resurgence maybe explained by increased case ascertainment and reporting, mutant B. pertussis strains with immune escape from acellular and whole cell vaccines, and/or macrolides, waning natural, or vaccine-induced immunity and COVID-19 pandemic factors.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Pertussis maybe curtailed with public education, active clinical and microbiological surveillance, appropriate antimicrobial treatment and prophylaxis, public health reporting, infection control and optimized immunizations to reduce attributable morbidity and mortality.</p>","PeriodicalId":10985,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in pediatrics","volume":" ","pages":"508-516"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12422605/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current opinion in pediatrics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0000000000001486","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/8/21 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PEDIATRICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose of review: Against the WHO's report of 84% diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) primary vaccination coverage globally, the resurgence of pertussis (whooping cough), contributing factors and measures to control it are described.
Recent findings: USA and China, with 94-97% primary DPT immunization uptake, reported a 6-fold and 65-fold increase in pertussis between two time periods in 2023 and 2024. The global post-COVID-19 pertussis epidemic is trending towards a shift from infants towards older persons. Macrolide resistance is prevalent in 98% of Bordetella pertussis strains in China and is now reported from other countries. Pertactin-deficient mutant acellular pertussis vaccine-evasive strains are now transmitted in older children and adults. Pertactin-producing B. pertussis is causing fulminant pertussis in newborns whose mothers were not immunized in pregnancy and in under-immunized infants. Circulating epidemic strains of B. pertussis were discordant to those contained in whole-cell (Bp137) pertussis vaccine. The pertussis resurgence maybe explained by increased case ascertainment and reporting, mutant B. pertussis strains with immune escape from acellular and whole cell vaccines, and/or macrolides, waning natural, or vaccine-induced immunity and COVID-19 pandemic factors.
Summary: Pertussis maybe curtailed with public education, active clinical and microbiological surveillance, appropriate antimicrobial treatment and prophylaxis, public health reporting, infection control and optimized immunizations to reduce attributable morbidity and mortality.
期刊介绍:
Current Opinion in Pediatrics is a reader-friendly resource which allows the reader to keep up-to-date with the most important advances in the pediatric field. Each issue of Current Opinion in Pediatrics contains three main sections delivering a diverse and comprehensive cover of all key issues related to pediatrics; including genetics, therapeutics and toxicology, adolescent medicine, neonatology and perinatology, and orthopedics. Unique to Current Opinion in Pediatrics is the office pediatrics section which appears in every issue and covers popular topics such as fever, immunization and ADHD. Current Opinion in Pediatrics is an indispensable journal for the busy clinician, researcher or student.