Epidemiology of pertussis, Atlanta, 1977

Protective effect of acellular pertussis vaccines

“…Similar rates have been reported in more recent but smaller studies (13,14). Although the British trials (12) were conducted 40 years ago, parameters of importance for the validity of attack rates, such as the average number of children per household, do not seem to have changed (1.8 children < 14years versus 1.9 < 16 years in the present study).…”

“…The attack rate of pertussis in non-immunized children after household exposure has been reported in a number of studies to be at least 80 % (11)(12)(13). Using the attack rate of 87 % reported in British Medical Research Council trials (12), 32 cases of pertussis could be expected to have occurred in 37 exposed non-immunized children.…”

Prevention of Secondary Transmission of Pertussis in Households With Early Use of Erythromycin

“…Suscep¬ tibility of older children and adults to infection with pertussis and their role in its transmission to younger, susceptible persons have been documented else¬ where.1316 These findings underscore the need to consider alternative control measures, such as the use of erythro¬ mycin when confronted with an outbreak of pertussis, particularly in view of high secondary attack rates (80% to 100%) among susceptible contacts. 3,5,6,17,18 While there are no data from controlled clinical trials demonstrating that prompt initiation of erythromycin treatment in the patient with a primary case will result in decreased transmission to close contacts, the efficacy of this measure is supported by observational data from our study and others. Steketee et al,17 in an institutional set¬ ting, found that infected persons with cough symptoms had shorter cough duration if treated with erythromycin within 1 week of illness onset, consistent with the findings of other studies.11,13,19,20 Biellik et al,10,21 in two separate investigations, found a delay in initiating eryth¬ romycin treatment among patients with primary cases in households with secondary transmission.…”

Correlation between Pertussis Toxin IgG Antibodies in Postvaccination Sera and Subsequent Protection against Pertussis

“…On the basis of results from studies of the attack rate of pertussis in nonvaccinated household-exposed children, it can be assumed that у80% of the vaccinated household-exposed children in the present study were in contact with B. pertussis [16][17][18][19]. The level of PT IgG in postvaccination sera was ∼2.5-fold higher in the children who did not develop pertussis than in those who developed severe pertussis.…”