Better recognition of whooping cough in older people

It is difficult to share Smout and colleagues’ optimism that increasing primary immunisation above 92.9% might control whooping cough, given that it is a relatively poor vaccine and that whooping cough is most infectious before the characteristic cough can be recognised.1 Pertussis is here to stay.

The epidemiology of pertussis in the vaccine era is not well understood. Neither natural infection nor whole cell vaccine approaches lifelong protection, and the various …