RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Principi, Nicola A1 Litt, David A1 Terranova, Leonardo A1 Picca, Marina A1 Malvaso, Concetta A1 Vitale, Cettina A1 Fry, Norman K. A1 Esposito, Susanna A1 the Italian Pertussis Group for Persistent Cough in ChildrenYR 2017 T1 Pertussis-associated persistent cough in previously vaccinated children JF Journal of Medical Microbiology, VO 66 IS 11 SP 1699 OP 1702 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.000607 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1473-5644, AB To evaluate the role of Bordetella pertussis infection, 96 otherwise healthy 7- to 17-year-old subjects who were suffering from a cough lasting from 2 to 8 weeks were prospectively recruited. At enrolment, a nasopharyngeal swab and an oral fluid sample were obtained to search for pertussis infection by the detection of B. pertussis DNA and/or an elevated titre of anti-pertussis toxin IgG. Evidence of pertussis infection was found in 18 (18.7 %; 95 % confidence interval, 11.5–28.0) cases. In 15 cases, the disease occurred despite booster administration. In two cases, pertussis was diagnosed less than 2 years after the booster injection, whereas in the other cases it was diagnosed between 2 and 9 years after the booster dose. This study used non-invasive testing to show that pertussis is one of the most important causes of long-lasting cough in school-age subjects. Moreover, the protection offered by acellular pertussis vaccines currently wanes more rapidly than previously thought., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000607