October 13, 2005 -- Pertussis Vaccination for Adolescents

Pertussis—whooping cough—is no longer a disease of young children and is increasingly shifting to adolescents and young adults, according to articles in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. There have been large outbreaks of pertussis among adolescents in recent years, and studies indicate that the severity of the illness tends to increase with age. “Pertussis immunization of adults may be necessary to improve the control of a rising burden of disease and infection,” say researchers who conducted a trial of an acellular pertussis vaccine developed specifically for use in adolescents and adults. (Two adult formulations acellular pertussis vaccines combined with an adult formulation of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (dTap) are licensed in North America --Boostrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Adacel, by Sanofi Pasteur). Researchers attributed the rise in cases of whooping cough among adolescents and young adults to “waning vaccine-induced immunity,” pointing out that while most young children in this country now routinely receive five doses of pertussis-containing vaccine before the age of 18 months and between the ages of 4 and 6 years, immunity is not necessarily life-long, leaving a large pool of potentially susceptible adolescents and adults. Abstracts of articles on pertussis vaccination of adolescents appearing in the October 13, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine are available at http://content.nejm.org.