PERTINENT, Pertussis in Infants European Network

Context situation

In the ten years before the project started, pertussis had re-emerged in many regions including the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), despite high and stable vaccine coverage with the primary series of acellular pertussis vaccine. This increase in pertussis incidence has been observed among adolescents, adults and particularly among children too young to be vaccinated or to have completed the primary series. The majority of severe complications (including pneumonia, convulsions, encephalopathy and death) occur in infants aged <6 months and half of infants less than 1 year of age who get the disease require hospitalisation. The PERTINENT network consisted of 11 partner institutions including seven study sites (six EU/EEA countries) and 41 hospitals.