REVIEW ARTICLE
Pertussis as a constantly occurring threat to public health
1
Chair and Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
2
Doctoral School, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
3
Department of Virology with Viral Diagnostics Laboratory, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
4
Provincial Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, Lublin, Poland
5
Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, University Children’s Hospital, Lublin, Poland
Submission date: 2025-02-24
Final revision date: 2025-07-22
Acceptance date: 2025-07-23
Online publication date: 2026-09-18
Corresponding author
Gabriela Nowak
Chair and Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Lublin, Chodźki 1, 20-093 Lublin, Poland
Chair and Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Lublin, Chodźki 1, 20-093 Lublin, Poland
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Bordetella pertussis causes the highly contagious respiratory disease known as whooping cough, which is a global public health problem. However, B. pertussis continues to be a threat in countries with low vaccination coverage, and it re-emerges in countries with high coverage. Infection can cause a variety of respiratory symptoms, many of which are particularly severe in newborn infants. The bacteria express a wide range of virulence factors that act in association to promote bacterial colonisation, dissemination, persistence, resistance to host immunity, and transmission. These variables have both systemic and local effects on host tissues, resulting in a distinct disease characteristic specific to B. pertussis. This paper reviews the epidemiology, disease pattern, virulence factors, complications, problems of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of B. pertussis.
REFERENCES (36)
1.
Belcher T, Dubois V, Rivera-Millot A, Locht C, Jacob-Dubuisson F. Pathogenicity and virulence of Bordetella pertussis and its adaptation to its strictly human host. Virulence. 2021; 12(1): 2608-2632.
3.
Rumik A, Paradowska-Stankiewicz I. Krztusiec w Polsce w 2021 roku [In Polish]. Przegl Epidemiol. 2023; 77(3): 372-380.
4.
Weekly bulletin. Communicable disease threats report. Week 12, 17-23 March 2024 [Internet]. ECDC [cited by 2024 Aug 30]. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/....
5.
Rapid risk assessment. Increase of pertussis cases in the EU/EEA. 8 May 2024 [Internet]. ECDC [cited by 2024 Aug 30]. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/....
6.
Surveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseases [Internet]. ECDC [cited by 2024 Aug 30]. Available from: https://atlas.ecdc.europa.eu/p....
7.
Krztusiec – wzrost zachorowań w Polsce i w Powiecie Garwolińskim [In Polish] [Internet]. Powiatowa Stacja Stanitarno-Epidemiologiczna w Garwolinie [cited by 2024 Aug 30]. Available from: https://www.gov.pl/web/psse-ga....
8.
Zachorowania na wybrane choroby zakaźne w Polsce od 1 stycznia do 15 października 2024r. oraz w porównywalnym okresie 2023r. [In Polish] [Internet]. Zakład Epidemiologii Chorób Zakaźnych i Nadzoru NIZP PZH-PIB [cited by 2024 Oct 27]. Available from: https://wwwold.pzh.gov.pl/oldp....
9.
Yahong H, Mengyang G, Meng Q, Yu D, Kaihu Y. Rising pertussis cases and deaths in China: current trends and clinical solutions. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2024; 13(1): 2389086.
10.
Confirmed cases of pertussis in England by month. Updated 10 October 2024 [Internet]. UK Health Security Agency [cited by 2024 Oct 27]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/....
11.
Coutte L, Antoine R, Slupek S, Solans L, Derop J, Bonnefond A, Hot D, Locht C. Combined RNAseq and ChIPseq analyses of the BvgA virulence regulator of Bordetella pertussis. mSystems. 2020; 5(3): e00208-20.
12.
Gregg KA, Merkel TJ. Pertussis toxin: a key component in pertussis vaccines? Toxins (Basel). 2019; 11(10): 557.
13.
Yılmaz Çolak Ç, Tefon Öztürk BE. Bordetella pertussis and outer membrane vesicles. Pathog Glob Health. 2023; 117(4): 342-355.
14.
Surmann B, Witte J, Batram M, Criée CP, Hermann C, Leischker A, Schelling J, Steinmüller M, Wahle K, Heiseke AF, Marijic P. Epidemiology of pertussis and pertussis-related complications in adults: a German claims data analysis. Infect Dis Ther. 2024; 13(2): 385-399.
15.
Nitsch-Osuch A, Lewtak K. Krztusiec u dorosłych [In Polish]. Lekarz POZ. 2022; 8(5): 321-325.
16.
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Laboratory diagnosis and molecular surveillance of Bordetella pertussis – Stockholm [Internet]. ECDC; 2022 [cited by Sep 15]. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/....
17.
Szewczyk E. Diagnostyka bakteriologiczna [In Polish]. 2nd ed. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN; Warszawa 2019.
19.
Zintgraff J, Irazu L, Lara CS, Rodriguez M, Santos M. The classical Bordetella species and MALDI-TOF technology: a brief experience. J Med Microbiol. 2018; 67(12): 1737-1742.
20.
Riffelmann M, Wirsing von Konig CH, Caro V, Guiso N; Pertussis PCR Consesus Group. Nucleic Acid amplification tests for diagnosis of Bordetella infections. J Clin Microbiol. 2005; 43(10): 4925-4929.
21.
Chen Z, Liu X, Zhang Y, Peng X, Zhang N, Chen N, Li Y, He Q. Evaluation of serum anti-pertussis toxin IgA antibodies for the diagnosis of Bordetella pertussis infection in young children. J Infect Public Health. 2023; 16(8): 1167-1173.
22.
Diavatopoulos DA, Cummings CA, Schouls LM, Bri- nig MM, Relman DA, Mooi FR. Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, evolved from a distinct, human-associated lineage of B. bronchiseptica. PLoS Pathog. 2005; 1(4): e45.
23.
Lönnqvist E, Barkoff AM, Mertsola J, He Q. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Finnish Bordetella pertussis isolates collected during 2006-2017. J Glob Antimicrob Resist. 2018; 14: 12-16.
24.
Hardy DJ, Vicino D, Fernandes P. In vitro activity of solithromycin against Bordetella pertussis, an emerging respiratory pathogen. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2016; 60(12): 7043-7045.
25.
Fulton TR, Phadke VK, Orenstein WA, Hinman AR, Johnson WD, Omer SB. Protective effect of contemporary pertussis vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2016; 62(9): 1100-1110.
26.
Warfel JM, Zimmerman LI, Merkel TJ. Acellular pertussis vaccines protect against disease but fail to prevent infection and transmission in a nonhuman primate model. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014; 111(2): 787-792.
27.
Wilk MM, Mills KH. CD4 TRM cells following infection and immunization: implications for more effective vaccine design. Front Immunol. 2018; 9: 1860.
28.
Klein NP, Bartlett J, Fireman B, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Baxter R. Comparative effectiveness of acellular versus whole-cell pertussis vaccines in teenagers. Pediatrics. 2013; 131(6): e1716-e1722.
29.
Wendelboe AM, Van Rie A, Salmaso S, Englund JA. Duration of immunity against pertussis after natural infection or vaccination. The Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2005; 24 (5 Suppl): S58-S61.
30.
Weinberger B, Keller M, Putzer C, Breitenberger D, Koller B, Fiegl S, Moreno-Villanueva M, Bernhardt J, Franceschi C,Voutetakis K, Gonos ES, Hurme M, Sikora E, Toussaint O, Debacq-Chainiaux F, Grune T, Breusing N, Bürkle A, Grubeck-Loebenstein B. Protection against tetanus and diphtheria in Europe: The impact of age, gender and country of origin based on data from the MARK-AGE Study. Exp Gerontol. 2018; 105: 109-112.
31.
Aris E, Harrington L, Bhavsar A, Simeone JC, Ramond A, Papi A. Burden of pertussis in COPD: a retrospective database study in England. COPD. 2021; 18(2): 157-169.
32.
Choi JH, Correia de Sousa J, Fletcher M, Gabutti G, Harrington L, Holden M, Kim H, Michel JP, Mukherjee P, Nolan T, Welte T, Maggi S. Improving vaccination rates in older adults and at-risk groups: focus on pertussis. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2022; 34(1): 1-8.
33.
Gauld N, Johnstone E, McMichael I, Braund R. Pharmacists’ views and desires regarding pharmacist administration of vaccines in New Zealand. Int J Pharm Pract. 2021; 29(2): 126-133.
34.
Kallonen T, Mertsola J, Mooi FR, He Q. Rapid detection of the recently emerged Bordetella pertussis strains with the ptxP3 pertussis toxin promoter allele by real-time PCR. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2012; 18(10): E377-E379.
35.
Barkoff AM, Mertsola J, Pierard D, Dalby T, Hoegh SV, Guillot S, Stefanelli P, van Gent M, Berbers G, Vestrheim D, Greve-Isdahl M, Wehlin L, Ljungman M, Fry NK, Markey K, He Q. Pertactin-deficient Bordetella pertussis isolates: evidence of increased circulation in Europe, 1998 to 2015. Euro Surveill. 2019; 24(7): 1700832.
36.
Keech C, Miller VE, Rizzardi B, Hoyle C, Pryor M, Ferrand J, Solovay K, Thalen M, Noviello S, Goldstein P, Gorringe A, Cavell B, He Q, Barkoff AM, Rubin K, Locht C. Immunogenicity and safety of BPZE1, an intranasal live attenuated pertussis vaccine, versus tetanus–diphtheria–acellular pertussis vaccine: a randomised, double-blind, phase 2b trial. Lancet. 2023; 401(10379): 843-855.
Share
RELATED ARTICLE
| eISSN: | 2300-6722 |
| ISSN: | 1899-1874 |
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
