Bordetella pertussis is the causative agent of pertussis, which mainly affects unvaccinated children, while Bordetella parapertussis causes a disease presenting clinical characteristics that are indistinguishable from whooping cough. Despite high vaccination coverage, pertussis remains a public health concern worldwide, with approximately 140 000 cases reported annually. Here we determined the prevalence of B. pertussis and B. parapertussis infection among infants under one year of age by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); our aim being to identify whether the data obtained relates to the relevant sociodemographic and clinical data. The study included 86 samples of nasopharyngeal swabs from infants aged between 0–12 months, who were reported as probable cases of whooping cough by the health centers around the Ecuadorian highlands, from August 2016 to July 2017. The nasopharyngeal swabs were cultured and microbiological and molecular analyses were performed. B. pertussis was identified by PCR in 41% of the samples (30/86), more than half of which corresponded to infants aged between 0–3 months. Moreover, a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.05) between the identification of bacteria in culture and the catarrhal stage of the disease was observed. The results obtained from the study highlighted the need for an active national surveillance of pertussis, in particular for laboratory testing, to provide a highly sensitive and more specific diagnosis of Bordetella infection.

百日咳博德特氏菌是百日咳的病原体，主要影响未接种疫苗的儿童，而副百日咳博德特氏菌引起的疾病具有与百日咳无法区分的临床特征。尽管疫苗接种覆盖率很高，百日咳仍然是世界范围内的公共卫生问题， 每年报告的病例约为 14万例。在这里，我们确定了百日咳杆菌和副百日咳杆菌的患病率一岁以下婴儿通过聚合酶链反应 (PCR) 感染；我们的目标是确定获得的数据是否与相关的社会人口学和临床数据有关。该研究包括 86 份 0-12 个月大婴儿的鼻咽拭子样本，这些婴儿在 2016 年 8 月至 2017 年 7 月期间被厄瓜多尔高地周围的卫生中心报告为百日咳的可能病例。进行了分子分析。通过 PCR 在 41% (30/86) 的样本中发现了百日咳杆菌，其中一半以上对应于 0-3 个月大的婴儿。此外，统计上显着的相关性 ( p  < 0.05) 观察到培养物中细菌的鉴定与疾病的卡他阶段之间的差异。从研究中获得的结果强调需要对百日咳进行积极的国家监测，特别是实验室检测，以提供对博德特氏菌感染的高度敏感和更具体的诊断。