Whooping cough in Sudanese children

The study describes the epidemiological and clinical features of whooping c ough among eighty one Sudanese children (42 cases and 39 contacts aged belo w fifteen years) within 37 households who were under surveillance for a per iod of over six months. Using Khartoum Children's Emergency Hospital as the entry point, eleven patients were initially enrolled between July 1989 and August 1990 and led to the identification of another twenty six cases duri ng home surveys. Subsequently, five of their contacts became secondary case s. The clinical criteria adopted by the Expanded Programme on Immunisation of the World Health Organization were used to identify the total of forty t wo cases included in the study. They were predominantly females (male: fema le ratio of 1:1.6), twenty (47.6%) were under five years of age and eight ( 19%) were infants, The attack rate was significantly higher among unimmunis ed infants (100%) compared to unimmunised children aged ten years and above (14.3%, p=0.001). Half of the patients were from periurban areas, the majo rity (83.3%), were living in crowded households (room index >5) and the pri mary immunisation rate was low (2.8%), Abnormal chest x-ray findings were d etected in 26 (68.4%) patients and consisted mainly of bronchovascular thic kening observed in 50%, During the follow-up period, a trend towards drop i n patients' weight was observed. In four weeks, thirty (71.4%) children had a mean loss of 0.4 kg whereas eleven (26.2%) had static weight. A group of fifteen cases showed significant decrease in weight when compared to a con trol group of contacts that had been matched for age, sex and socio-economi c status (p=0.0001).