High prevalence of antibody titers against Bordetella pertussis in an adult population with prolonged cough

SummaryBackgroundPertussis is mainly considered as a disease of childhood. However, an increasing number of adults with infection due to Bordetella pertussis is reported in the literature.MethodsA retrospective cohort study of patients with a new origin-cough of more than 3 weeks duration who were evaluated by an internal medicine–infectious diseases group practice in Athens, Greece during the period 10/2005–12/2007 was performed; patients underwent serological testing for B. pertussis infection.ResultsFive hundred and fifty-four adult patients underwent B. pertussis serological testing from whom 441 had a single IgM/IgG measurement. The percentage of seropositivity in the IgM/IgG B. pertussis serological testing was 71.5% in the population studied (397/554 patients; for patients who had IgM/IgG B. pertussis serological testing in more than one occasions, only the result of the first IgM/IgG measurement was taken into account for this analysis). For the subset of patients with a single IgM/IgG measurement, the percentage of seropositivity against B. pertussis was 70.7% (312/441 patients).ConclusionsB. pertussis infection should be considered as a significant pathogenic infection in a significant proportion of adult patients presenting a new origin-cough of more than 3 weeks duration. In order to reduce the burden of pertussis disease in adults as well as transmission of pertussis in children, booster vaccination is recommended for adolescents and adults.