22.2 Bacterial infections of the respiratory tract  (Page 12/21)

A pertussis infection can be divided into three distinct stages. The initial infection, termed the catarrhal stage , is relatively mild and unremarkable. The signs and symptoms may include nasal congestion, a runny nose, sneezing, and a low-grade fever. This, however, is the stage in which B. pertussis is most infectious. In the paroxysmal stage , mucus accumulation leads to uncontrollable coughing spasms that can last for several minutes and frequently induce vomiting. The paroxysmal stage can last for several weeks. A long convalescence stage follows the paroxysmal stage, during which time patients experience a chronic cough that can last for up to several months. In fact, the disease is sometimes called the 100-day cough.

In infants, coughing can be forceful enough to cause fractures to the ribs, and prolonged infections can lead to death. The CDC reported 20 pertussis-related deaths in 2012, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “2012 Final Pertussis Surveillance Report.” 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/downloads/pertuss-surv-report-2012.pdf. Accessed July 6, 2016. but that number had declined to five by 2015. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “2015 Provisional Pertussis Surveillance Report.” 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/downloads/pertuss-surv-report-2015-provisional.pdf. Accessed July 6, 2016.

During the first 2 weeks of infection, laboratory diagnosis is best performed by culturing the organism directly from a nasopharyngeal (NP) specimen collected from the posterior nasopharynx. The NP specimen is streaked onto Bordet-Gengou medium . The specimens must be transported to the laboratory as quickly as possible, even if transport media are used. Transport times of longer than 24 hours reduce the viability of B. pertussis significantly.

Within the first month of infection, B. pertussis can be diagnosed using PCR techniques. During the later stages of infection, pertussis-specific antibodies can be immunologically detected using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Pertussis is generally a self-limiting disease. Antibiotic therapy with erythromycin or tetracycline is only effective at the very earliest stages of disease. Antibiotics given later in the infection, and prophylactically to uninfected individuals, reduce the rate of transmission. Active vaccination is a better approach to control this disease. The DPT vaccine was once in common use in the United States. In that vaccine, the P component consisted of killed whole-cell B. pertussis preparations. Because of some adverse effects, that preparation has now been superseded by the DTaP and Tdap vaccine s. In both of these new vaccines, the “aP” component is a pertussis toxoid.

Widespread vaccination has greatly reduced the number of reported cases and prevented large epidemics of pertussis. Recently, however, pertussis has begun to reemerge as a childhood disease in some states because of declining vaccination rates and an increasing population of susceptible children.

This web page contains an audio clip of the distinctive “whooping” sound associated with pertussis in infants.

This interactive map shows outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, including pertussis, around the world.