[Perinatal pertussis: from mother to child]

Two infants, a girl, aged four weeks, and a boy, aged three weeks, came to our attention with poor feeding and weight loss. Later the typical cough of pertussis appeared. Serological testing confirmed that both patients' mothers had recently had pertussis. One mother suffered from severe and typical coughing periods even throughout labour. Despite the vaccination program in the Netherlands, each year new-born infants with pertussis require hospitalisation. Pertussis during the neonatal period is seldom described. Adults can suffer from pertussis, even when they have been vaccinated in childhood. They then become contagious for unvaccinated infants. Pertussis during the neonatal period is an insidious disease with sometimes severe complications. If pertussis is suspected in mothers with new-born infants or pregnant women towards the end of the pregnancy, they should be treated with antibiotics to prevent pertussis in the new-born infant.