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Pertussis Commonly Underlies Enduring Cough In Adolescents, Adults

Pertussis is becoming increasingly recognized as a cause of prolonged illness in both adolescents and adults. Until now, prevalence of this acute and highly contagious infection of the respiratory tract had not been well established in these age groups.

The prevalence study was carried out by researchers from the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, and Dalhousie University/IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, with the Sentinel Health Unit Surveillance System Pertussis Working Groups.

Participants were 442 adolescents and adults aged 12 years old and more (mean age 41.3 years) who had a cough-related illness of seven to 56 days' duration.

For four of these patients (0.9 percent), results of nasopharyngeal culture or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) were positive for Bordetella pertussis. Ten of the patients (2.3 percent) had either results of culture, PCR were positive or pertussis antibody titres increased four-fold.

Eighty-eight of the patients (19.9 percent) had either laboratory-confirmed pertussis or laboratory evidence of the infection. These 88 patients also had significantly longer duration of cough (56 days) than did patients without any laboratory evidence of the disease (46 days).

More of the patients with laboratory evidence of infection (45.5 percent) also had vomiting with cough than did those without such indications (28.5 percent).

These researchers conclude pertussis is both a common cause of prolonged cough in young people and adults and is frequently linked with other whooping cough symptoms.
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2001;32:1691-1697. "Pertussis Is a Frequent Cause of Prolonged Cough Illness in Adults and Adolescents"

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