Bordetella pertussis in children hospitalized with a respiratory infection: clinical characteristics and pathogen detection in household contacts

• Main Authors: Juana del Valle-Mendoza, Wilmer Silva-Caso, Miguel Angel Aguilar-Luis, Cristina del Valle-Vargas, Erico Cieza-Mora, Johanna Martins-Luna, Ronald Aquino-Ortega, Andrea Silva-Vásquez, Jorge Bazán-Mayra, Pablo Weilg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2018-05-01
• Series: BMC Research Notes
• Subjects: Pertussis; Bordetella pertussis; Whooping cough; PCR; Peru
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13104-018-3405-7
• ISSN: 1756-0500

Abstract Objective Describe the prevalence of Bordetella pertussis via PCR in children under 5 years old hospitalized as probable cases of pertussis and report the most common clinical features among them. Results A positive PCR result for B. pertussis was observed in 20.5% of our samples (18/88), one-third of them were from infants between 2 and 3 months old. The most common symptoms were paroxysms of coughing (88.9%), difficulty breathing (72.2%), cyanosis (77.8%) and fever (50%). The mother was the most common symptomatic carrier (27.8%), followed by uncles/aunts (22.2%) among children with pertussis.