CDC reports over 5,000 cases of Bordetella pertussis infection for 1999. Circulating antibodies appear in week 3 of illness and peak in the eighth to tenth week. Antibodies can be demonstrated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Inactivated whole-cell vaccines are highly effective, but occasionally cause toxic side effects. Leukocytosis with lymphocytosis is also common during this phase of the illness.
Dangerous complications are bronchopneumonia and acute encephalopathy.
Bordetella parapertussis can cause a milder form of pertussis. The bordetellae are small, gram-negative, aerobic coccobacilli. Bordetella pertussis produces a number of virulence factors, including pertussis toxin, adenylate cyclase toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, and hemolysin. Agglutinogens and other outer membrane proteins are important antigens. 97364d Bristol University, UK, BristolBiomedical Archive has three images of gross pathology of Bordetella bronchiseptica infection.