Surge in "pertussis" cases at emergency departments in Réunion

Since the beginning of 2013, a resurgence of pertussis cases has been observed in the island’s emergency departments. In total, 21 cases were coded as pertussis as a primary or associated diagnosis (ICD-10 codes: A37, A37.0, A37.1, A37.8, A37.9) between January 1 and August 4, 2013, whereas for the entire year of 2012, 8 cases were reported by the surveillance system. The epidemic curve shown in Figure 1 indicates a first wave at the beginning of the year and a second wave since June.These cases mainly involved infants (n=11). During investigations, the presence of coughing adults in the child’s immediate environment was identified. Nevertheless, investigations are continuing to validate the signal. As a reminder, pertussis vaccination coverage in the adult population (ages 19–28) in 2009 was 49.4%.