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Letters

Surveillance of whooping cough should continue

BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7369.904/a (Published 19 October 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:904
  1. Ruth C Matthews, professor and director.,
  2. Noel W Preston, former director.,
  3. Debbie J Holden, research assistant
  1. Pertussis Reference Laboratory, Central Manchester Healthcare Trust, Manchester M13 9WL

    EDITOR—Crowcroft and Britto's editorial on whooping cough gives little evidence of global resurgence, mentioning only limited outbreaks associated with strains producing variants of pertactin and pertussis toxin and no adverse role associated with variants among British or French isolates.1These two components are virulence factors in mice, but antibodies to them correlated poorly with protection of children, and acellular vaccines containing them have been less efficacious than whole cell vaccine.2

    Of more concern is the reliability of the diagnosis of pertussis …

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