Vacunas acelulares (DTPa/dTpa) contra la tos ferina: duración de la protección

INTRODUCTION An increase in whooping cough in most of the developed countries has been detected in the last decade. OBJECTIVE To determine whether the administration of dTpa vaccine instead of DTPa fifth dose is contributing to the appearance of these cases. METHODS A descriptive study based on cases of whooping cough reported during an epidemic period in the city of Alicante in the first 5 months of 2014. Only pertussis cases confirmed by PCR were included in the study, and only those vaccinated with 5 doses were included in the analysis of the period of protection. RESULTS A total of 104 cases of pertussis confirmed by PCR were reported, with 85 cases (82%) having had 5 doses of vaccine. The mean time and standard deviation (SD) of protection was 2.1±1.1 years with dTpa, and 5.1±1.5 years with DTPa (p