Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection

The availability of an effective vaccine against Bordetella pertussis substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality from pertussis, however, in the last decade there appears to have been a substantial increase in pertussis cases as reported mainly in high income countries. Although it is believe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Muloiwa, Rudzani
Other Authors: Zar, Heather
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health 2022
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613340714401792
access_status_str Open Access
author Muloiwa, Rudzani
author2 Zar, Heather
author_browse Muloiwa, Rudzani
Zar, Heather
author_facet Zar, Heather
Muloiwa, Rudzani
author_sort Muloiwa, Rudzani
collection Thesis
description The availability of an effective vaccine against Bordetella pertussis substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality from pertussis, however, in the last decade there appears to have been a substantial increase in pertussis cases as reported mainly in high income countries. Although it is believed that the greatest burden of pertussis, including deaths, is in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there seem to be little data available to back this up. This thesis set out to find data that will give some insight into the burden of pertussis in a low- and middle-income setting in infants and children with severe lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). Given the paucity of data in LMICs, the thesis started by systematically searching for existing data that will give some indication of the possible extent of the pertussis problem in these countries. Secondly, a prospective study was conducted at a children's hospital. As hospital admission is a marker of severe disease, these children were targeted as the appropriate population in which to meaningfully conduct a primary study on the burden of pertussis. In addition to quantifying the burden by describing the prevalence of confirmed pertussis in this group of children, the study set out to look for potential factors that may be associated with increased risk of pertussis. LRTI are now commonly known to be associated with identification of multiple organisms in respiratory samples, this study aimed to also look at organisms that are detected with Bordetella pertussis; and investigate whether this association was in any way associated with severe disease or negative outcomes. Finally, this study hoped to identify clinical features that could be used to develop a more reliable clinical case definition of pertussis. Chapter 1 gives a background that justifies the undertaking of this study. In chapter 2 a systematic review quantifies, using the best available data, the burden of pertussis in LMICs. Chapter 3 clarifies the methods briefly described in the rest of the manuscript. The burden of pertussis due to the two organisms known to cause the disease, Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis, is described in some detail. In both this chapter and the earlier mentioned systematic review (chapter 2), the burden of pertussis is stratified by subgroups to identify potential risk factors. The issue of risk is formally and specifically taken up in the chapter that follows (chapter 5) where potential risk factors are analysed, and the independent impact for some of these factors is established. The last two results chapters (chapters 6 and 7) deal respectively with the conundrum of finding other respiratory organism in the same specimen with Bordetella pertussis and failure to find useful clinical criteria that can help with improved diagnosis of pertussis. While there is no established pattern noted between pertussis and most organisms, a few give signals of being independently associated with Bordetella pertussis even if the clinical relevance is not clear at the moment. In the final chapter of the thesis (chapter 8) I conclude the thesis by making an argument that although there are still knowledge gaps, the thesis gives a clear indication that pertussis remains a serious problem in LMICs especially for some groups that show increased risk of the disease or its severe consequences.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35503
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:33.896Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
publisherStr Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35503 Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection Muloiwa, Rudzani Zar, Heather Hussey, Gregory Paediatrics and Child Health The availability of an effective vaccine against Bordetella pertussis substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality from pertussis, however, in the last decade there appears to have been a substantial increase in pertussis cases as reported mainly in high income countries. Although it is believed that the greatest burden of pertussis, including deaths, is in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there seem to be little data available to back this up. This thesis set out to find data that will give some insight into the burden of pertussis in a low- and middle-income setting in infants and children with severe lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). Given the paucity of data in LMICs, the thesis started by systematically searching for existing data that will give some indication of the possible extent of the pertussis problem in these countries. Secondly, a prospective study was conducted at a children's hospital. As hospital admission is a marker of severe disease, these children were targeted as the appropriate population in which to meaningfully conduct a primary study on the burden of pertussis. In addition to quantifying the burden by describing the prevalence of confirmed pertussis in this group of children, the study set out to look for potential factors that may be associated with increased risk of pertussis. LRTI are now commonly known to be associated with identification of multiple organisms in respiratory samples, this study aimed to also look at organisms that are detected with Bordetella pertussis; and investigate whether this association was in any way associated with severe disease or negative outcomes. Finally, this study hoped to identify clinical features that could be used to develop a more reliable clinical case definition of pertussis. Chapter 1 gives a background that justifies the undertaking of this study. In chapter 2 a systematic review quantifies, using the best available data, the burden of pertussis in LMICs. Chapter 3 clarifies the methods briefly described in the rest of the manuscript. The burden of pertussis due to the two organisms known to cause the disease, Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis, is described in some detail. In both this chapter and the earlier mentioned systematic review (chapter 2), the burden of pertussis is stratified by subgroups to identify potential risk factors. The issue of risk is formally and specifically taken up in the chapter that follows (chapter 5) where potential risk factors are analysed, and the independent impact for some of these factors is established. The last two results chapters (chapters 6 and 7) deal respectively with the conundrum of finding other respiratory organism in the same specimen with Bordetella pertussis and failure to find useful clinical criteria that can help with improved diagnosis of pertussis. While there is no established pattern noted between pertussis and most organisms, a few give signals of being independently associated with Bordetella pertussis even if the clinical relevance is not clear at the moment. In the final chapter of the thesis (chapter 8) I conclude the thesis by making an argument that although there are still knowledge gaps, the thesis gives a clear indication that pertussis remains a serious problem in LMICs especially for some groups that show increased risk of the disease or its severe consequences. 2022-01-18T08:53:03Z 2022-01-18T08:53:03Z 2021 2022-01-12T11:28:42Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35503 eng application/pdf Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Paediatrics and Child Health
Muloiwa, Rudzani
Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
title_full Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
title_fullStr Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
title_full_unstemmed Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
title_short Epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
title_sort epidemiology of pertussis in children hospitalised with respiratory tract infection
topic Paediatrics and Child Health
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35503
work_keys_str_mv AT muloiwarudzani epidemiologyofpertussisinchildrenhospitalisedwithrespiratorytractinfection