TY - JOUR
T1 - The Changing Epidemiology of Pertussis in Young Infants
T2 - The Role of Adults as Reservoirs of Infection
AU - Nelson, J. D.
PY - 1978/4
Y1 - 1978/4
N2 - We reviewed 400 bacteriologically confirmed cases of pertussis in infants and children during the past 18 years. Several changes in the epidemiology have occurred in the most recent six-year period. The incidence of whooping cough in children has decreased by at least 50%, but the proportion of cases occurring in infants younger than 12 weeks of age has doubled to 30% of all cases. Formerly most young infants acquired their illness from siblings or other children, but in the recent period adults in the household were the most common source of infection to neonates and young infants. This observation plus the increasingly high level of immunization in preschool and school-aged children suggest that young adults with waning immunity and mild illness are a major reservoir for transmission of pertussis to infants too young to be immunized.
AB - We reviewed 400 bacteriologically confirmed cases of pertussis in infants and children during the past 18 years. Several changes in the epidemiology have occurred in the most recent six-year period. The incidence of whooping cough in children has decreased by at least 50%, but the proportion of cases occurring in infants younger than 12 weeks of age has doubled to 30% of all cases. Formerly most young infants acquired their illness from siblings or other children, but in the recent period adults in the household were the most common source of infection to neonates and young infants. This observation plus the increasingly high level of immunization in preschool and school-aged children suggest that young adults with waning immunity and mild illness are a major reservoir for transmission of pertussis to infants too young to be immunized.
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U2 - 10.1001/archpedi.1978.02120290043006
DO - 10.1001/archpedi.1978.02120290043006
M3 - Article
C2 - 645653
AN - SCOPUS:0018224935
SN - 0096-8994
VL - 132
SP - 371
EP - 373
JO - American Journal of Diseases of Children
JF - American Journal of Diseases of Children
IS - 4
ER -