Abstract
: To assess whether changes in vaccination policy have affected the epidemiology of pertussis in NSW between 1993 and 2005. : Surveillance data from the NSW Notifiable Diseases Database was reviewed for the period. : 35695 cases of pertussis were notified; annual incidence rates varied from 18.4 to 84.2 per 100000 people. The highest rates of pertussis were consistently found in infants aged 0–6 months. Rates of disease in other age groups changed markedly over the study period, with high rates currently observed in adult age groups. : New strategies may be needed to control pertussis in infants and in adults who now comprise the largest proportion of cases.
