Infant Pertussis and Household Transmission in Korea

Kwon, Hyo Jin; Yum, Sook Kyung; Choi, Ui Yoon; Lee, Soo Young; Kim, Jong Hyun; Kang, Jin Han

In our study, the majority of household members showed respiratory symptoms such as prolonged cough and recent history of antibiotics treatment for respiratory infections. However, none of them did know that pertussis might cause severe or chronic cough in adolescents and adults. Also, they did not have the concept of household transmission of pertussis. There has been an increase in the reported number of pertussiss cases in many countries, primarily among adolescents and adults, which is special concern because adolescents and young adults are a recognized reservoir of infection for neonates and infants, who are at high risk for pertussis-related morbidity and mortality (23) (24) (25) (26) . Several household studies have noted the predominant role of parents in the transmission of pertussis to susceptible infants (27, 28) . For this reason, the USA Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended the cocooning strategy that Tdap vaccine be administered to all caregivers of infants less than 1 yr, in an effort to protect young infants against pertussis since 2006 (29) . Likewise, the cocooning strategy is important in Korea, in keeping with high morbidity and mortality in young infants without immunization (30) . Despite the introduction of Tdap vaccine in our country, vaccine use is only beginning, perhaps because of an incomplete understanding of the burden of pertussis among community population and the lack of national policy and education concerned with the necessity of Tdap vaccination. The immunization policy in Korea recently introduced the booster dose of Tdap vaccine as part of routine immunization in adolescent. Therefore, the change in the epidemiology of pertussis should be noted carefully.