Pertussis — A Disease and Vaccine for All Ages

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Abstract
There is increasing evidence and awareness that pertussis is not just a disease of children. Although most severe disease and almost all mortality occur in young infants, the overall disease burden is increasingly shifting to adolescents and adults.1 There have been large outbreaks of pertussis among adolescents who had both classic pertussis symptoms and prolonged illness with cough.2 Pertussis is less well characterized in adults than in adolescents but has been associated with up to 20 percent of prolonged illness with cough. Studies have suggested that the clinical severity of pertussis in adults increases with age.3 This change in epidemiologic . . .