[Can we control pertussis better? II. Old and new vaccines against pertussis].

Although in many countries pertussis had been successfully controlled by the routine mass immunization in infants and children, the disease continues to cause extensive morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Whole-cell pertussis vaccine plays an important role in the control of pertussis in the world and the vaccine proved to be very successful during nearly 50 years of its use. However, the whole-cell pertussis vaccine causes an increased rate of local and general adverse events although many of these events described as caused by vaccination are occurring co-incidentally, not being related to vaccination. Results of recent clinical and field trials in the USA, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Senegal showed that acellular pertussis vaccines are effective in preventing pertussis in children and safe in infants. However, a crucial issue in more general use of acellular pertussis vaccine is its availability and its price. It may be prove too expensive for many countries, including Poland. The cost can be expected to decrease in the future, when the production capacity and the number of doses used increase. The introduction of acellular pertussis vaccine in the immunization programme in Poland will need several organizational, technological and scientific actions.