Pertussis Vaccines Scarcely Provide Protection against Infection in Children-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a global public health concern. Pertussis vaccines have demonstrated good protection against infections, but their effectiveness against remains debated due to conflicting study outcomes.

METHODS

A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the effectiveness of pertussis vaccines in protecting children against infection. A comprehensive search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases was conducted, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies that met inclusion criteria were included in the analysis.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis, involving 46,533 participants, revealed no significant protective effect of pertussis vaccination against infection (risk ratio: 1.10, 95% confidence interval: 0.83 to 1.44). Subgroup analyses by vaccine type and study design revealed no significant protection. The dearth of recent data and a limited pool of eligible studies, particularly RCTs, underscore a critical gap that warrants future research in the domain.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings offer crucial insights into the lack of effectiveness of pertussis vaccines against . Given the rising incidence of cases and outbreaks, coupled with the lack of cross-protection by the existing vaccines, there is an urgent need to develop vaccines that include specific antigens to protect against .