Whooping Cough in the United States and Britain

Abstract

To the Editor: A 1978 editorial in the Journal expressed "reasonable doubt" about pertussis vaccine.¹ One reason for doubt was the absence of reliable data about the prevalence and pattern of whooping cough. This gap is now filled by a supplementary survey reported by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.² For the first time since about 1950, the data provide a broad enough base for comparison with the British data referred to in the editorial and in other issues of the Journal.Comparison of the data from the Centers for Disease Control with those from three independent . . .