Parapertussis: Report of a case and a review of the literature

Abstract

Whooping cough is endemic in Brisbane with laboratory confirmed epidemics occurring at intervals of two to four years in the spring and summer of 1980/81, 1983/84, 1985/86 and 1989/90. Between January 1975 and June 1990, nine of 356 (2.5%) Bordetella isolates from patients at the Royal Brisbane Hospital were identified as Bordetella parapertussis . One child had dual infections with B. pertussis and B. parapertussis isolated from the same specimen. B. parapertussis was isolated from the mother of this child and from another adult, a young resident, who presented with persistent sore throat and cough. This paper reports the latest case and reviews the clinical spectrum and laboratory diagnosis of parapertussis. The generally low rate of detection of B. parapertussis may be the result of the lack of cultures taken from children and adults with mild whooping cough and the failure to distinguish this species from B. pertussis .