This week WAidid suggests an article on pertussis epidemiologic trends published on June 2015 in The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal.

SUMMARY:
Pertussis has reemerged as a problem across the world. To better understand the nature of the resurgence, the authors reviewed recent epidemiologic data and disease’s trends from across the world. Findings are confounded by the lack of systematic and comparable observations in many areas of the world, but also by the cyclic nature of pertussis with peaks occurring every 3 to 5 years. It appears that pertussis incidence has increased in school-age children in North America and western Europe, where acellular pertussis vaccines are used, but an increase has also occurred in some countries that use whole-cell vaccines. Worldwide, pertussis remains a serious health concern, especially for infants, who bear the greatest disease burden. Factors that may contribute to the resurgence include lack of booster immunizations, low vaccine coverage, improved diagnostic methods, and genetic changes in the organism. To better understand the epidemiology of pertussis and optimize disease control, it is important to improve surveillance worldwide, irrespective of pertussis vaccine types and schedules used in each country.

AUTHORS: Tan T, Dalby T, Forsyth K, Halperin SA, Heininger U, Hozbor D, Plotkin S, Ulloa-Gutierrez R, von König CH