Incidence of pertussis in children with chronic cough in surveillance hospital in Guangzhou

Objective To understand the incidence of pertussis in children with chronic cough in Guangzhou and the influencing factors. Methods Pertussis antibody detection was conducted among the children aged 14 years who sought medical care in Guangzhou Women and Children Health Care Center for cough lasting for more than 3 weeks during January-June 2013. Results In 127 cases investigated,27 cases of pertussis infection were detected (PT-IgG100 U/ml), 21 cases were less than 1 year old (77.8%), and among the 27 pertussis cases, 16 (59.3%) developed fever (37.9-40 ℃). There was no significant differences between pertussis cases and non-pertussis cases in the observations of fever, paroxysmal cough,expectoration,cyanosis, echoes, breathholding and other symptoms (P0.05),Pneumoniawas detected in 27 cases. The difference in incidence of pneumonia between pertussis cases and non-pertussis cases had no significance(P=0.004). The association between the incidence of pertussis (PT-IgG100 U/ml) and duration of cough showed a linear correlation (2=5.354, P=0.021), indicating that the longer the duration of cough was, the higher the incidence of pertussis would be. Conclusion Chronic cough in children is associated with pertussis infection, but the symptoms are not typical, suggesting that pertussis detection should be strengthened in children with cough for long time.