Report: shattering a myth - whooping cough susceptible to antibiotics

Bordetella parapertussis is the causative agent of a milder form of pertussis or whooping cough. Little is reported about the antibiotic resistance patterns and mechanism of drug resistance of Bordetella parapertussis. The objective of this study has been to investigate antimicrobial resistance, distribution of integrons and presence of gene cassettes to quinolones [qnr] and sulfonamides [sul] among B. parapertussis strains' isolated from Pakistan. Thirty-five [35] samples were collected from various hospitals of Pakistan from children [median age 3 years] with pertussis-like symptoms, all were tested and confirmed to be B. Parapertussis. Resistance profile of Ampicillin, Cephalexin, Sulphamethoxazole, Chloramphenicol, Ofloxacin, Nalidixic acid, Gentamycin and Erythromycin were investigated through all samples. Majority of the isolates were found to be resistant to the afore-mentioned antibiotics except erythromycin. All isolates were resistant to quinolones phenotypically, but qnr genes were detected in only 25.7% [9/35] of isolates. On the other hand, 71.4% [25/35] isolates were resistant to sulfonamides phenotypically. From these 71% strains showing phenotypical resistance, 96% [24/25] were found to possess sul genes. Only two isolates were carrying class 1 integrons, which also harbored sul gene and qnr gene cassettes. It can be safely concluded that the phenotypic resistance patterns seemed mostly independent of presence of integrons. However, interestingly both integrons harboring strains were resistant to quinolones and sulfonamides and also possessed qnr and sul genes

Seroprevalence of bordetella pertussis antibodies to pertussis toxin among healthy children

Pertussis or whooping cough is a highly communicable, vaccine-preventable acute respiratory tract disease, caused mainly by Bordetella pertussis. In this study, serosurveillance of IgG antibodies against pertussis toxin was carried out in healthy children, aged 3 months to 12 years, from the multiethnic cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Kruskal- Wallis test was applied to determine the difference among groups. The results showed that the average values of pertussis toxin IgG dropped down significantly with age after getting the first dose in first 2 years [p < 0.001]. Therefore, the researchers suggest introduction of booster vaccination with DTaP at second year of life and school going age to reduce the risk of getting B. pertussis infection