OREANDA-NEWS. Due to the improvement of laboratory diagnostics in recent years in Russia, there has been an increase in the incidence of pertussis in all age groups; the issue of developing a vaccine against this disease for adults is currently being worked out. This was reported to RIA Novosti in the press service of Rospotrebnadzor.

The report says: "According to the staff of the laboratory for surveillance of diphtheria and whooping cough at the Moscow Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Gabrichevsky, in recent years, due to the improvement of laboratory diagnostics, there has been an increase in the incidence of whooping cough in all age groups, both among adults and among children."

In Moscow, in 2019, 346 cases of pertussis were registered among adults, mostly people aged 30-39 years old. In general, among all cases of whooping cough in 2020, children under the age of 14 were most often ill, the press service said.

Adults were infected with whooping cough earlier, but due to a much more severe course in children and the formation of immunity after suffering a disease in childhood, whooping cough has traditionally been attributed to childhood infections, the department explained.

"The number of cases of pertussis among adults is growing, both due to the improvement in the quality and availability of laboratory diagnostic methods, and due to the decrease in the number of vaccinated children. Analysis of the incidence showed that sick adults were mainly infected from their children attending children's educational institutions. clarification of information on vaccinations, it turned out that 88% of them were not vaccinated against whooping cough, "- emphasized in Rospotrebnadzor.