Pertussis in Czech Republic and on the World

Pertussis is the serious and highly infectious disease which presents a big worldwide problem. Especially little children take the disease but it is able to affect every age group. It could be fatal for infants, little children and especially for everyone, who hasn't immunized already. The disease affected up to 51 million cases yearly and from that 600 000 diseased died in advanced countries before the implementation of vaccinations (1). A regular vaccination was introduced in advanced countries in 1950. It has succeed to reduce the incidence on very small number of the cases yearly. However, the number of the cases has been increasing from 1980. The disease has started to be the threat again in the last years. The similar situation is also in Czech Republic. The number of the cases has been increased several fold during the last few years here (CR). Here is visible a shift from a lower age group to a higher especially in children 10-14 years old