The Re-Emergence of Whooping Cough in Sfax (Southern Tunisia)

Whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious human respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis . Despite the widespread use of the pertussis vaccine has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the incidence of whooping cough around the world, a resurgence of this bacterial infection noted in many countries have marked the two last decades and pertussis continues to be a public health concern even in countries with high vaccination coverage.

In 2008, about 195000 children under the age of 5 died from this disease in the world which represented 2% of all deaths in this age group. In 2010, WHO estimated the global incidence of pertussis of 50 million cases per yea. Waning immunity after natural infection or vaccination has been considered as one of the major reasons for the observed epidemiologic trend. In fact, according to a review of the literature, the infection-acquired immunity against pertussis disease and the vaccine-induced immunity wane after 4–20 years and 4–12 years, respectively. Read more......................