Is Bordetella pertussis susceptibility to erythromycin changing?
Keywords: pertussis , antibiotic therapy , resistance Sir, Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection caused by Bordetella pertussis and, less frequently, by Bordetella parapertussis. There is the suggestion that vaccination programmes over the last century may have led to genetic changes in B. pertussis.1 However, the extent of genetic diversity in different countries remains debatable. Macrolide antibiotics have been used for treatment and prophylaxis of pertussis for over 50 years, but occasional reports of resistance to erythromycin, the traditional antibiotic of choice, highlight the need for continued surveillance of pertussis.2,3 Unfortunately, widespread replacement of culture with direct nucleic acid amplification, for diagnosis of pertussis, has dramatically decreased the availability of clinical isolates for testing and resulted in a lack of data on the antimicrobial susceptibility of B. pertussis and its temporal trends. This study reports susceptibility t
