{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T01:13:09Z","timestamp":1790817189971,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,19]],"date-time":"2024-05-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716076800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Italian Ministry of Health \u201cCurrent Research funds\u201d, \u201cEU funding within the NextGenerationEU-MUR PNRR Extended Partnership initiative on Emerging Infectious Diseases","award":["PE00000007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PE00000007"]}]},{"name":"ANIA Foundation","award":["PE00000007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PE00000007"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antibiotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Pertussis continues to be a highly contagious respiratory infection, especially in children, with cyclical peaks of disease spread every three to five years. Here, we report relevant cases of B. pertussis infection between August 2023 and January 2024, and compare them with B. pertussis prevalence in pediatric patients admitted to the Reference Italian Pediatric Hospital, located in Rome, from January 2015 to July 2023. A total of 5464 tests for B. pertussis were performed during the study period, and 6.9% were positive. At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp decrease in the presence of B. pertussis, which reappeared only in August 2023, recording five new cases. All five children presented with paroxysmal cough 5 to 10 days before admission. Four patients had other mild respiratory symptoms and moderate B. pertussis DNA levels (Ct mean: 26). Only one child, with very high B. pertussis DNA levels (Ct: 9), presented with severe respiratory failure. The patients with mild\/moderate infection achieved clinical recovery while the patient with the severe manifestation died of cardiac arrest. These observations highlight the reemergence of pertussis even in vaccinated countries and its association with morbidity and mortality especially in young children. This emphasizes the importance of rapid diagnosis to immediately implement appropriate treatment and monitoring of immune status.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics13050464","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,20]],"date-time":"2024-05-20T08:20:31Z","timestamp":1716193231000},"page":"464","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Whooping Cough Cases Increase in Central Italy after COVID-19 Pandemic"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Giulia","family":"Linardos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4933-4242","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luana","family":"Coltella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefania","family":"Ranno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Velia Chiara","family":"Di Maio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5618-1523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luna","family":"Colagrossi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisabetta","family":"Pandolfi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Preventive and Predictive Medicine Research Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Beatrice","family":"Chiarini Testa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Pulmonology and Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leonardo","family":"Genuini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Stoppa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0051-8080","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matteo","family":"Di Nardo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Annalisa","family":"Grandin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"General Pediatric and Infectious Disease Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7711-5672","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Renato","family":"Cutrera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Pulmonology and Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Corrado","family":"Cecchetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9120-0424","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alberto","family":"Villani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"General Pediatric and Infectious Disease Unit, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Massimiliano","family":"Raponi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Direction, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paola","family":"Bernaschi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6178-5460","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina","family":"Russo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlo Federico","family":"Perno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCSS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rossana","family":"Scutari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Multimodal Laboratory Research Unit, Bambino Ges\u00f9 Children\u2019s Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jinf.2013.09.022","article-title":"Bordetella pertussis: Why is it still circulating?","volume":"68","author":"Guiso","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. 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Immunother."}],"container-title":["Antibiotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2079-6382\/13\/5\/464\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T14:44:42Z","timestamp":1760107482000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2079-6382\/13\/5\/464"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,19]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5]]}},"alternative-id":["antibiotics13050464"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/antibiotics13050464","relation":{},"ISSN":["2079-6382"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2079-6382","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,19]]}}}