Abstract
Bordetella pertussis is the bacterial agent of whooping cough, an infectious disease that is reemerging despite high vaccine coverage. Newborn children are the most affected, not only because they are too young to be vaccinated but also due to qualitative and quantitative differences in their immune system, which makes them more susceptible to infection and severe manifestations, leading to a higher mortality rate comparing to other groups. Until recently, prevention consisted of vaccinating children in the first year of life and the herd vaccination of people directly in touch with them, but the increase in cases demands more effective strategies that can overcome the developing immune response in early life and induce protection while children are most vulnerable.
Highlights
Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative coccobacillus that causes whooping cough, known as pertussis, in humans [1]
Respiratory infection is especially aggressive in young children, who are more likely to experience the classical manifestation of the disease [5], divided into three phases: the first phase is characterized by unspecific symptoms, such as coryza, fever, and occasional cough
After recognition of bacterial patterns by Toll-like receptors (TLRs), resident macrophages and neutrophils phagocytize and destroy bacteria at the infection site while dendritic cells (DCs) present and activate T CD4+ lymphocytes, which in turn mainly differentiate into IFN-γ-producing-T helper (Th) 1 cells
Summary
Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative coccobacillus that causes whooping cough, known as pertussis, in humans [1]. In the UK, over 9,000 children younger than 3 years old were infected in 2011 [9], and in Brazil, there were 22.426 confirmed cases, mostly in children younger than 1 year of age; in São Paulo, the largest state in the country, the incidence increased from 2.20 per 100,000 in 2011 to 5.06 per 100,000 in 2014 [10]. Other countries such as Argentina, Chile, Canada, and Australia reported an increase in the number of cases [11, 12]. Journal of Immunology Research of the symptoms; but as these antibiotics are unspecific and the disease is usually diagnosed due to the paroxysmal cough, treatment is often delayed, and by the time it is prescribed, the symptoms are already more severe, making prevention vital, especially for young children [13]
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