Qualitative assessment of pertussis diagnostics in United States laboratories.

Background: United States national surveillance data show that the use of culture for pertussis diagnostics has sharply declined, whereas polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is now the most common testing method. PCR testing for pertussis is rapid and sensitive, but the lack of standardization and variable specificity is concerning.

Methods: A web-based survey containing 12 questions was sent to public health, commercial and hospital-based US laboratories performing clinical diagnostics to determine the pertussis diagnostics used.

Population diversity among Bordetella pertussis isolates, United States, 1935-2009.

Since the 1980s, pertussis notifications in the United States have been increasing. To determine the types of Bordetella pertussis responsible for these increases, we divided 661 B. pertussis isolates collected in the United States during 1935-2009 into 8 periods related to the introduction of novel vaccines or changes in vaccination schedule.

Novel multitarget real-time PCR assay for rapid detection of Bordetella species in clinical specimens.

A novel multitarget real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assay for the rapid identification of Bordetella pertussis, B. parapertussis, and B. holmesii was developed using multicopy insertion sequences (ISs) in combination with the pertussis toxin subunit S1 (ptxS1) singleplex assay.