ABSTRACT
Whooping cough (pertussis) derives its name from the characteristic sound which is caused by the rapid influx ofair past the glottis at the end of paroxysmal coughing fits among patients with the disease. This clinical presentation is quite distinctive, and the disease was first recognized in the Middle Ages, with the first documented epidemic occurring in Paris in 1578 as cited in (I). The principal causative organism, now known as Bordetella pertussis, was first isolated by Bordet and Gengou in 1906 (2). It is a small, aerobic Gram-negative coccobacillus, and because of its preference for culture media with high concentrations of blood, it was placed in the genus Haemophilus for many years. The organism, however, does not require X and V factors for growth, a characteristic of other members of this genus, and so in the 1960s, it was given its current name in honour ofBordet.
