Antibiotic treatment of pertussis: are 7 days really sufficient?

Alexa Dierig1, Christiane Beckmann, Ulrich Heininger

  • 1From the *Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; †Division of Infection Diagnostics, Department Biomedicine (Haus Petersplatz), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; and ‡University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Insights

Short courses of antibiotic therapy for pertussis may not be sufficient for young infants. Two unvaccinated infants remained positive for Bordetella pertussis after multiple antibiotic treatments, challenging current guidelines.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Microbiology

Background:

  • Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory infection.
  • Short-course antibiotic therapy is the standard treatment for pertussis.
  • Current guidelines suggest contagiousness decreases significantly after 5 days of antibiotics.

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