Annual Meeting 2016

The PERTINENT Annual Meeting was held in Stockholm, 26th-27th September 2016.

The meeting was organised by ECDC and took place within the biannual VPD Network Meeting.

The overall aim of the VPD network meeting was to gather epidemiologists and laboratory experts working in the area of pertussis, bringing together representatives of the two ECDC VPD networks, PERTINENT and EUpert-labnet, in order to facilitate the sharing of information on key ongoing activities and identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration.

Two parallel sessions were dedicated to the PERTINENT Netword and were organised as follows:


Parallel session 1:

    • PERTINENT Generic protocol

    • Presentations of the PERTINENT study in each study sites: Deviances and/or specificities, results and challenges

      • The Czech Republic: Pavla KRIZOVA

      • France: Emmanuel BELCHIOR

      • Ireland: Breda GALLAGHER O'LOUGHLIN

      • Italy: Elisabetta PANDOLFI

      • Spain, Catalonia: Mireia JANE CHECA

      • Spain, Navarra: Manuel GARCIA CENOZ

      • Norway: Elmira FLEM

    • Summary of the site visits and discussions for harmonisation


Parallel session 2:

    • Interactive discussion for harmonisation of patients inclusion criteria: Alberto TOZZI

    • Discussion of the laboratory guidelines: Carmen MUÑOZ ALMAGRO

    • Review of the generic protocol.

Please find the corresponding presentations available for download below.


Main conclusions:

The main conclusions of our exchanges are summarised below:

    • The case definition will be modified and changed to any infant aged less than one year who attended one of the participating hospitals (irrespective of the length of stay), testing positive for Bordetella pertussis by PCR (detection of Bordetella pertussis nucleic acid using RT-PCR in a clinical specimen) or culture (isolation of Bordetella pertussis from a clinical specimen).

    • We mentioned that we would estimate the paediatric early warning score (PEWS) to score severity of the patient at admission. However, we raised the fact that PEWS might not be computed homogeneously among the sites and that we should collect the required variables in each site and then compute the score at the coordination level.

    • For this purpose, we will need to discuss and review with the network a precise and clear definition of the PEWS for the PERTINENT study. We will also need to discuss the feasibility of implementing this indicator and collecting the required data.

    • We discussed among ourselves the control selection for the two sites that can only include three controls for each case enrolled. We decided not to match cases and controls by age group to avoid introducing to much complexity in the patient recruitment.

    • We will adjust on age group during the analysis.

    • Regarding the laboratory requirements, the network would need to identify fundings in order to help every study sites to perform each of the specific PCR targets identifying B.pertussis.

    • Following the laboratory workshop, a controls for the TND VE study is defined as an infant on whom a nasopharyngeal aspirate was performed and testing negative for pertussis. However, because of sample size issue, we will perform two analysis: a primary analysis with controls with NP aspirate, and then a sensitivity analysis with all enrolled controls (NP swab and aspirate).

    • The network would like to submit the PERTINENT laboratory guidelines to the EUPertLabnet network for advice and collaboration.

    • In order to estimate the case fatality and mortality rates of B.pertussis among hospitalised infants in the network, we would need specific studies to know the exact number of deaths due to the bacteria. Indeed, participating hospitals can only collect the number of deaths occurring at the hospital from B.pertussis and cannot follow up patients after discharge.

    • Specific studies would also be needed in the future:

      • Validation studies to estimate the number of cases that can be missed when we only screen through the laboratory records;

      • Validation studies to estimate the number of cases that can be missed when we only enrol hospitalised patients;

      • Specific protocols in each study sites in order to estimate the proportion of enrolment in the study.