English

A young boy coughing due to pertussis

Noun

pertussis ‎(plural pertusses)

1. (pathology) Whooping cough.
   • 1976, Charles R. Manclark, The Current Status of Pertussis Vaccine: An Overview, D. Perlman (editor), Advances in Applied Microbiology, Volume 20, page 1,

     With the introduction of an improved and standardized pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, there followed a remarkable decline in pertussis in the United States, most of the Western world, and Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

   • 2009, Zoë E. V. Worthington, Nicholas H. Carbonetti, 18: Bordetella pertussis, Karl Wooldridge (editor), Bacterial Secreted Proteins: Secretory Mechanisms and Role in Pathogenesis, page 413,

     Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen that infects the human respiratory tract, causing the disease pertussis or whooping cough.

   • 2015, Dr. Stephen Berger, Pertussis: Global Status, GIDEON Informatics, Inc., E-book, page 343,

     During 1993 to 2004, the hospitalization rate [in the US] for pertussis among infants ages <= 2 months was 239 per 100,000 live births.

Related terms

• pertussal
• pertussoid

Translations