Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014
Research
Oral Fluid Testing for Pertussis, England and Wales, June 2007–August 2009
, Gayatri Amirthalingam, Norman K. Fry, David Litt, Timothy G. Harrison, Karen Wagner, Natasha S. Crowcroft, and Elizabeth Miller
Table 1
Distribution of samples received by RSIL for pertussis testing, England and Wales, June 2007–August 2009*
| Patient/Age, y |
Test method, no. submitted/no. positive (% positive)† | Notifications, no. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral fluid |
PCR‡ |
Serology |
Total |
||
| <1§ | 139/69 (50) | 682/187 (27) | 208/39 (19) | 1,029/295 (29) | 452 |
| 1–4 | 288/85 (30) | 41/5 (12) | 299/53 (18) | 628/143 (23) | 366 |
| 5–9 | 214/83 (39) | 6/1 (17) | 183/54 (30) | 403/138 (34) | 250 |
| 10–14 | 282/173 (61) | 13/3 (23) | 429/242 (56) | 724/418 (58) | 372 |
| >15 | 904/341 (38) | 19/0 (0) | 3,975/1,077 (27) | 4,898/1,418 (29) | 1,147 |
| All | 1,827/751 (41) | 761/196 (26) | 5,094/1,465 (29) | 7,682/2,412 (31) | 2,587 |
*RSIL, Health Protection Agency (which became Public Health England on April 1, 2013) Respiratory and Systemic Infection Laboratory (which became the Respiratory and Vaccine Preventable Reference Unit on April 1, 2013). Data are based on samples submitted, and >1 sample/patient might have been submitted.
†Culture testing is excluded because RSIL does not undertake initial culture testing; therefore, the total number of samples submitted for testing nationally is not known.
‡PCR testing is not routinely available for patients >1 y of age with suspected pertussis.
§Culture testing accounted for >50% of all pertussis confirmations for infants <1 y of age, but the total number of samples submitted for testing is not known.