Clinical presentations in newborn and infant.

Clinical presentations in newborn and infant. The clinical expression of whooping cough varies according to two main factors that are the age and the pertussis immunity of the subject. The more subject is young, the more it is exposed to grave, complicated and sometimes lethal disease. Residual immunity after immunization or infection protects the individual but in a incomplete way as one goes away from the last antigenic stimulation. The persistence of whooping cough in industrial nations in spite of vaccination has for consequence the appearance of less severe forms to partially immune subjects. These forms are atypical and not recognized and contribute to the persistence of the circulation of Bordetella pertussis and to the contagion of the young infants who make the most severe forms. Answer to this situation is the practice of late boosters in adolescents and adults. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.