The United States research strategy on pertussis

Wide-scale use of whole-cell vaccines has fed to good control of pertussis disease in the United States; however, this control has been achieved at the cost of common and uncommon adverse events of known frequencies. Agencies of the U.S. Public Health Service actively stimulated the development of new pertussis vaccines by directly supporting basic and applied research and increasing interactions with industry and with health authorities in other countries. This international cooperation resulted in a better understanding of the pathogenesis of pertussis and in the final development and clinical testing of several candidate acellular pertussis vaccines.