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Pertussis resurgence in Israel mainly attributable to two strains
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Most of the patients with pertussis in Israel present with four main strains of Bordetella pertussis, two of which are closely related, according to recent study results.
Bahaa Abu Raya, MD, and colleagues, of the department of pediatrics at the Bnai Zion Medical Center and the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Haifa, Israel, examined 82 positive B. pertussis samples collected at the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory between epidemic years of 2007 and 2008.
Using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the researchers said four strains, two of which were closely related, made up 95% of the sample. The researchers dubbed these strains A, B, C and D, and reported that “the most common Israeli strain [A] has the same PFGE cluster as the dominant European BpSR11 strain (PFGE cluster IV) identified in the 1999 to 2004 EUpertstrain II project.” The data indicated that the most common strains were similar to those found in Europe and other Western countries.
“Such positive selection of strains that may not be included in the pertussis vaccine may confer increased pertussis activity of non-vaccine strains in a highly vaccinated population,” the researchers wrote. “As such, the recent booster introduced in this country's immunization schedule may indeed have an important effect on the local pertussis epidemiology. … Continued surveillance of pertussis PFGE strain typing following the recent additions to the country's vaccination schedule should be pursued to track B. pertussis polymorphism.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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