How should we approach adolescent and adult pertussis?

Previously considered a disease of childhood, pertussis is now also recognized as a significant problem for adolescents and adults; however, diagnosing pertussis remains problematic due to its nonspecific clinical presentation and the time delay, sensitivity/specificity, and expense of testing. To be effective, therapy is best started very early in the illness, when the illness is seldom recognized. Other than chemoprophylaxis in families with a non-immune infant, antibiotic therapy is controversial due to the ubiquitous nature of pertussis, its similarity to other respiratory infections, increased prevalence, prolonged outbreaks, and difficulties in determining true exposures in the general community. If antimicrobial therapy is used extensively for whooping cough prevention, drug reactions and increased bacterial resistance are expected. Likewise, without laboratory confirmation of infection, isolation of individuals is difficult and expensive. Fortunately, 2 new Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines, 1 for adolescents and 1 for adolescents/adults, are now available. Both have been shown to be safe and to produce protective antibody responses. As vaccination of adolescent and adult groups is expanded, the rising incidence of pertussis in all age groups can be curtailed.