Circulation of pertussis and poor protection against diphtheria among middle-aged adults in 18 European countries

Guy Berbers (1) , Pieter van Gageldonk (1) , Jan van De Kassteele (1) , Ursula Wiedermann (2) , Isabelle Desombere (3) , Tine Dalby (4) , Julie Toubiana (5) , Sotirios Tsiodras (6) , Ildikó Paluska Ferencz (7) , Kathryn Mullan (8) , Algirdas Griskevicius (9) , Tatjana Kolupajeva (10) , Didrik Frimann Vestrheim (11) , Paula Palminha (12) , Odette Popovici (13) , Lena Wehlin (14) , Tamara Kastrin (15) , Lucia Maďarová (16) , Helen Campbell (17) , Csaba Ködmön (18) , Sabrina Bacci (18) , Alex-Mikael Barkoff (19) , Qiushui He (19, 20) , Serosurveillance Study Team

1 RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [Bilthoven]
2 Medizinische Universität Wien = Medical University of Vienna
3 Sciensano [Bruxelles]
4 Statens Serum Institut [Copenhagen]
5 IP - Institut Pasteur [Paris]
6 Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention
7 OEK - National Center for Epidemiology - Országos Epidemiológiai Központ [Budapest]
8 UCD - University College Dublin [Dublin]
9 NPHSL - National Public Health Surveillance Laboratory [Vilnius, Lithuania]
10 NRL [Riga]
11 NIPH - Norwegian Institute of Public Health [Oslo]
12 INSA - Instituto Nacional de Saùde Dr Ricardo Jorge [Portugal]
13 INSP - National Institute of Public Health [Romania]
14 Public Health Agency of Sweden
15 NLZOH - Slovenia National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food [Ljubljana, Slovenia]
16 RAPH - Regional Authority of Public Health [Slovaquia]
17 Public Health England [London]
18 ECDC - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [Stockholm, Sweden]
19 University of Turku
20 CUMS - Capital University of Medical Sciences [Beijing]

Reported incidence of pertussis in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) varies and may not reflect the real situation, while vaccine-induced protection against diphtheria and tetanus seems sufficient. We aimed to determine the seroprevalence of DTP antibodies in EU/EEA countries within the age groups of 40–49 and 50–59 years. Eighteen countries collected around 500 samples between 2015 and 2018 (N = 10,302) which were analysed for IgG-DTP specific antibodies. The proportion of sera with pertussis toxin antibody levels ≥100 IU/mL, indicative of recent exposure to pertussis was comparable for 13/18 countries, ranging between 2.7–5.8%. For diphtheria the proportion of sera lacking the protective level (<0.1 IU/mL) varied between 22.8–82.0%. For tetanus the protection was sufficient. Here, we report that the seroprevalence of pertussis in these age groups indicates circulation of B. pertussis across EU/EEA while the lack of vaccine-induced seroprotection against diphtheria is of concern and deserves further attention.

Domains: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Biodiversity; Santé publique et épidémiologie

Guy Berbers, Pieter van Gageldonk, Jan van De Kassteele, Ursula Wiedermann, Isabelle Desombere, et al.. Circulation of pertussis and poor protection against diphtheria among middle-aged adults in 18 European countries. Nature Communications, 2021, 12 (1), pp.2871. ⟨10.1038/s41467-021-23114-y⟩. ⟨pasteur-03327912⟩