Pertussis in the Taiwan Area, 1995

Pan TM

1996 Vol.12 NO.12

Correspondence Author:

Abstract:

There was a total of 26 pertussis positive cases in the Taiwan Area in 1995; of them, 12 were culture-positive, and 14 were with clinical symptoms and were epidemiologically related to the culture-positive cases. Their distributions by age, sex, month of onset, residence and immunization status were as follows: of the confirmed cases, 10 (38.5%) were males and 16 (61.5%) females; 8 cases each were either one year and under or in the 5-9 age group, 2 in the 1-4 age group, 1 in the 25-29 age group, 5 in the 30-34 age group, and 2 in the 35-39 age group; with the exception of March, April and September, cases occurred in every month, with more cases (17, 65.4%) in May through August; 9 cases occurred in Taipei County, 7 in Taipei City and 6 in Changhua County. In the 26 confirmed cases, 20 had family clusterings. 16 of them were interviewed: 3 adults could not recall immunization; 7 infants (6 under 2 months, one 3 months old) had not been immunized; 3 had completed 4 doses of DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus); one had two doses; and two (4 and 6 months old) had only one dose of DPT.