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In Catalonia, pertussis outbreaks must be reported to the Department of Health. This study analyzed pertussis outbreaks between 1997 and 2010 in general and according to the characteristics of the index cases. The outbreak rate, hospitalization rate and incidence of associated cases and their 95%CI were calculated. Index cases were classified in two groups according to age (lt;15 years and ≥15 years) and the vaccine type received: whole cell vaccine (DTwP) or acellular vaccine (DTaP). During the study period, 230 outbreaks were reported. The outbreak rate was 2.43 × 10(-6) persons-year, and outbreaks ranged from 2 to 32 cases, with a median duration of 18 days. There were 771 associated cases, with an incidence rate of 0.8 × 10(-5) persons-year. After classifying outbreaks according to the age of the index case, 126 outbreaks (1.3 × 10(-6) persons-year) had an index case agedlt;15 y and 87 (0.87 × 10(-6) person-year) had an index case aged ≥15 y (RR = 1.44, 95%CI 1.10-1.90; P = 0.007). Between 2003 and 2010, after the introduction of the acellular vaccine, the index case was vaccinated with DTwP vaccine in 25 outbreaks (0.43 × 10(-6) persons-year) and with DTaP vaccine in 32 outbreaks (0.55 × 10(-6) person-year) (RR = 0.78, 95%CI 0.46-1.31; P = 0.35). Of cases, 37.2% were correctly vaccinated, suggesting waning immunity of pertussis vaccine protection and endogenous circulation of pertussis. A greater number of outbreaks had an index case agedlt;15 y. No changes in the disease incidence, associated cases and hospitalization rate were observed after the introduction of DTaP.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole-cell pertussis vaccine produced locally and routinely used in Poland in the elimination of Bordetella parapertussis strains from the lungs and trachea of a mouse model. We found that the average protective effect against B. parapertussis in the lungs of mice immunized with the whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTwP) was significantly higher than in animals immunized with the acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP). The effectiveness of B. parapertussis elimination rates from the lungs of DTwP-immunized mice, depending on the strain used as a challenge, was found to be 1.2–3.0 times or 3.1–7.0 times lower than against Bordetella. pertussis Tohama I or vaccine B. pertussis 606/67 isolates, respectively. Our results show that the locally produced DTwP vaccine is able to protect against B. parapertussis isolates; however, the level of protection and course of B. parapertussis infection in the lungs and trachea seems to be strain specific.

The aim of the current study was to assess the epidemiological situation concerning the emergence of a pertussis outbreak, as well as potential contributing factors and vaccine effectiveness. A retrospective epidemiological description and an analysis of the outbreak among students were performed. The basic school in Adavere had a total of 150 students in 2003. Of these, 54 cases of pertussis, with median age 12 y, all corresponding to clinical case definition, were identified with an attack rate of 36%. Regarding confirmation of the diagnosis, out of all clinical cases, 18 were confirmed by laboratory testing (2 by isolation of B. pertussis and 16 serologically based on single sera) and 36 with epidemiological linkage only. Of all the students with pertussis, 35 (65%) had received 4 doses and 6 (11%) 3 doses of DTwP vaccine; 13 (24%) students had received fewer than 3 doses or were unvaccinated. The contributing factors in generating this outbreak were close epidemiological contacts, late identification of pertussis diagnosis in the primary, secondary and later cases, as well as a too late initiated active surveillance. In this outbreak, low vaccine effectiveness and low vaccination coverage also played an important role.

The authors developed a simple and rapid method for quantitation of 2-phenoxyethanol (2-PE) in DTwP vaccine based on reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The method was simple and reproducible. The sensitivity of the assay was confirmed by spiking known amounts of 2-phenoxyethanol to the vaccine sample.

Teenagers who received four doses of the newer acellular pertussis vaccines were nearly six times as likely to receive a diagnosis of pertussis during a recent outbreak in California than were those who received doses of the older, whole cell preparation, a new study has found.1 After pertussis vaccines were introduced in the 1940s the annual number of cases of the disease in the United States fell from more than 100 000 to fewer than 10 000 by 1965. These vaccines were derived from whole Bordetella pertussis organisms and were combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoid (in the DTwP vaccine). But because of concerns that the whole …

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) Collaborative Study of a Fifth Sequential Dose of 6 DT Acellular Pertussis (DTaP) Vaccines Compared with One Whole Cell Pertussis (DTwP) Vaccine in 4 to 6 Year-Old Children † 889