BORDETELLA-PARAPERTUSSIS INFECTION IN CHILDREN - EPIDEMIOLOGY, CLINICAL SYMPTOMS, AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISTICS OF ISOLATES

The clinical trial conducted in Italy to evaluate the efficacy of acel lular pertussis vaccines provided an opportunity to estimate the frequ ency of clinical infections with Bordetella parapertussis and to compa re the clinical characteristics of children suffering from Bordetella pertussis illness with those of children with B. parapertussis illness . This study dealt with 76 B. parapertussis infections diagnosed from a population of 15,601 children participating in the follow-up of susp ected cases of pertussis. An overall incidence of 2.1 cases of laborat ory-confirmed parapertussis per 1,000 person-years was observed. Child ren affected by B. parapertussis infections showed a less severe clini cal picture both in the duration of symptoms and in the percentage of patients affected, even when compared with vaccinated children with pe rtussis. To characterize the isolated strains, we performed assays for susceptibility to erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, and we examined the genomic DNAs by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The results showed a high degree of genetic stability among B. parapertus sis strains regardless of time of collection and geographical distribu tion.