Effect of Macrolides and β-lactams on Clearance of Bordetella pertussis in the Nasopharynx in Children With Whooping Cough

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the bactericidal effect of macrolides and β-lactams on Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis) in the nasopharynx and provide guidance for treating macrolides-resistant B. pertussis infections.Patients with whooping cough was diagnosed by culture of nasopharynx swabs between January 2016 to December 2018. B. pertussis was identified using specific antisera against pertussis and parapertussis. Drug susceptibility test was carried out using the E-test method. The clearance of B. pertussis in nasopharynx at 7 and 14 days into and posttreatment with macrolides, and β-lactams was compared.A total of 125 B. pertussis samples were collected from patients who received single antibiotic treatment. Among those isolates, 62.4% (78/125) had high resistance with minimum inhibitory concentrations greater than 256 mg/L for erythromycin and azithromycin. The MIC90 of piperacillin, cefoperazone-sulbactam, meropenem, ampicillin, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for these isolates was <0.016, 0.094, 0.094, 0.19, 0.19, 0.25 and 0.75 mg/L, respectively. The clearance rate with β-lactams treatment (68.8%, 44/64) was significantly higher than that with macrolides treatment at 14 days posttreatment (50.8%, 31/61) (χ2 = 4.18, P = 0.04). Macrolides had a better clearance rate at 7 days posttreatment than β-lactams (χ2 = 4.49, P = 0.03) for macrolides-sensitive isolates and a worse clearance rate for macrolides-resistant isolates.B. pertussis isolates had a high-resistant rate for macrolides in our study. Macrolides are the first choice for treating pertussis caused by macrolides-sensitive strains, and some β-lactams such as piperacillin should be considered as alternative antibiotics for treatment of macrolides-resistant B. pertussis infection.