Pertussis: A re-emerging disease

Pertussis (also called whooping cough) is a highly contagious disease affecting human respiratory tract, due to the agents: Bordetella pertussis and less frequently Bordetella parapertussis (1). It remains a public health problem in many developed and developing countries. This disease is lifethreatening in infants under the age of three months and may also be serious in pregnant women and the elderly. A shift in the transmission of the disease was observed in areas with high vaccine coverage from schoolage children to adolescents, adults and children under 1 year of age in the last decade (1,2). Two types of vaccines: whole cell and acellular are now used around the world for primary pertussis vaccination. Because of their slightest reactogenicity acellular vaccines are used also as boosters in adolescents and adults (1).