Pertussis is a frequent cause of prolonged cough illness in adults and adolescents.

Although pertussis is increasingly recognized as a cause of prolonged cough illness in adolescents and adults, its prevalence is not well established. We evaluated pertussis infection in 442 adolescents and adults > or = 12 years old (mean age, 41.3 years) who had a cough-related illness of 7--56 days' duration. For 4 patients (0.9%), results of nasopharyngeal culture or PCR were positive for Bordetella pertussis; for 10 patients (2.3%), either results of culture or PCR were positive or pertussis antibody titers increased 4-fold. Eighty-eight patients (19.9%) had either laboratory-confirmed pertussis or laboratory evidence of pertussis. These patients had significantly longer duration of cough than did patients without laboratory evidence of pertussis (56 days vs. 46 days), and more of them had vomiting with cough (45.5% vs. 28.5%, respectively). Pertussis is a common cause of prolonged cough illness in adolescents and adults and is frequently associated with other symptoms of whooping cough.

Invasive disease due to group B streptococcal infection in adults: results from a Canadian, population-based, active laboratory surveillance study--1996. Sentinel Health Unit Surveillance System Site Coordinators.

In 1996, a population-based surveillance program for invasive adult group B streptococcal (GBS) diseases in Canada was undertaken, to define the epidemiologic and microbiologic characteristics of the disease. Nine public health units across Canada, representing 9.6% of the population, participated in the program. In total, 106 culture-positive cases of invasive adult GBS disease were reported, which represented an incidence rate 4.6 per 100,000 adults (41/100, 000 for pregnant and 4.1/100,000 for nonpregnant adults). Sixty-two (58.5%) of the 106 cases occurred in females, and, of these, 15 (14. 2%) were associated with pregnancy. Serotype V was the most common, accounting for 31% of the 90 GBS isolates typed (26.7% of nonpregnant and 4.4% of pregnant cases). This was followed by serotypes III (19%), Ia (17%), Ib (10%), II (9%), and VII (1%). Thirteen percent were nontypeable. All isolates were susceptible to penicillin, ampicillin, and vancomycin. Resistance to erythromycin and clindamycin was 6.7% and 4.4%, respectively.