Pertussis Outbreak Analysis in Republic of Moldova

Abstract

There are analyzed the incidence of whooping cough for the period of 1993 - 2016 in Republic of Moldova in this article. 210 from 280 cases of pertussis reported in 2016 and. Specific IgM antibodies of 174 patients were investigated. The epidemic process of pertussis is cyclical, with a period of 3 - 4 years, with a higher incidence in urban areas and in children up to two years, with a tendency to increase the proportion among the patients of school-age children and adults. The decrease in vaccination coverage from 95.4% in 2008 to 89.7% in 2015 led to an increased incidence. From total number of cases, 68.1% were children aged from 0 to 6 years old. The age structure of registered cases in 2016 included: 22.4% under one year old; 44.3% between 1 - 2 years, 27.1% school age children between 7 -17 years and 4.8% adults. A later uptake of medical care was registered, with an average of 10.5 days after onset of the disease, but in age group of children under one year it was 9.6 days. The bases of the diagnosis of whooping cough in 10.7% of cases were clinical data, in 16.2% were clinical - epidemiological data and in 73.1% were laboratory data. Specific IgM antibodies were detected in 77.0 ± 6.4% of patients. Among patients under one year old, 14.9% were under the age of vaccination, 34.0% received from 1 to 3 doses of vaccine, 19.1% are not vaccinated by false contraindications and 27.6% due to refusal. Among patients from the age group of 3-6 years, 56.0% received 3 - 4 doses of vaccine, 18.0% were not vaccinated because of false contraindications and 40.0% due to the failure of the vaccination. From children patients who received a full course of vaccination against pertussis, 25.0% had been vaccinated 1 - 2 years ago and other 25.0% became ill after three or four years after immunization.