Research advances in pertussis resurgence and its causes

ABSTRACT

There are a variety of factors contributing to pertussis resurgence, which is related to short duration of immunity provided by the vaccine, the difference of vaccination strategies, the change of epidemiological characteristics, antibiotic resistance, the variation of bordetella pertussis, the improvement of diagnostic criteria and the advancement of the monitoring system.There has been a decrease in the number of cases of natural infection since the vaccination, leading to a change in the prevalence of pertussis currently.The decline in population group immunity causes a decrease of serum antibody titer transmitted from the mother to the newborn.As a result, unvaccinated infants have poor immunity against pertussis in the early stage, and infants under 1 year old are prone to severe pertussis.Children and adolescents are also susceptible to pertussis owing to the short-term efficacy of the vaccine.They often present with chronic cough after infection.Adults infected with pertussis are unheeded because of atypical symptoms or occult infection, and they would infect young babies.To improve the diagnosis and treatment of pertussis, it is necessary to meliorate the laboratory diagnosis, study bacterial variation and drug resistance, strengthen disease surveillance, seek more optimized immunization strategies and develop new vaccines.In this paper, the causes of pertussis resurgence were reviewed, in order to provide reference for prevention and control of pertussis in China.