Table 5. Distribution of antibiotics prescribed within 1 month before pertussis diagnosis in persons ≥50 years of age, Australia*.
| Category | No. pertussis cases | Antibiotic prescription |
Antibiotic category |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Yes | Broad-spectrum penicillin | Cephalosporins | Macrolides | Tetracyclines | Trimethoprim combinations | |||
| All pertussis patients | |||||||||
| Overall | 992 | 740 (75) | 252 (25) | 61 (24) | 11 (4) | 209 (83) | 12 (5) | 2 (1) | |
| Age group, y | |||||||||
| 50–64 | 598 | 444 (74) | 154 (26) | 33 (21) | 4 (3) | 130 (84) | 6 (4) | 1 (1) | |
| 65–74 | 260 | 190 (73) | 70 (27) | 17 (24) | 6 (9) | 60 (86) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | |
| 75–84 | 95 | 76 (80) | 19 (20) | 8 (42) | 1 (5) | 11 (58) | 5 (26) | 0 (0) | |
| >85 | 39 | 30 (77) | 9 (23) | 3 (33) | 0 (0) | 8 (89) | 0 (0) | 1 (11) | |
| Sex | |||||||||
| F | 658 | 497 (76) | 161 (24) | 36 (22) | 9 (6) | 134 (83) | 7 (4) | 2 (1) | |
| M |
332 |
242 (73) |
90 (27) |
|
25 (28) |
2 (2) |
74 (82) |
5 (6) |
0 (0) |
| Pertussis patients with asthma | |||||||||
| Overall | 117 | 75 (64) | 42 (36) | 14 (33) | 7 (17) | 34 (81) | 0 | NA | |
| Age group, y | |||||||||
| 50–64 | 72 | 47 (65) | 25 (35) | 7 (28) | 3 (12) | 21 (84) | 0 | ||
| 65–74 | 38 | 21 (14) | 17 (86) | 6 (35) | 4 (24) | 14 (82) | 0 | NA | |
| 75–84 | 7 | 6 (86) | 1 (14) | 1 (100) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| >85 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Sex | |||||||||
| F | 86 | 55 (64) | 31 (36) | 10 (32) | 7 (23) | 26 (84) | 0 | NA | |
| M |
31 |
20 (65) |
11 (35) |
|
4 (36) |
0 |
8 (73) |
0 |
|
| Pertussis patients with COPD | |||||||||
| Overall | 185 | 139 (75) | 46 (25) | 17 (37) | 2 (4) | 38 (83) | 3 (7) | NA | |
| Age group, y | |||||||||
| 50–64 | 81 | 61 (75) | 20 (25) | 7 (35) | 0 | 16 (80) | 1 (5) | ||
| 65–74 | 60 | 44 (73) | 16 (27) | 6 (38) | 2 (13) | 14 (88) | 0 | NA | |
| 75–84 | 29 | 22 (76) | 7 (24) | 2 (29) | 0 | 6 (86) | 2 (29) | ||
| >85 | 15 | 11 (73) | 4 (27) | 2 (50) | 0 | 3 (75) | 0 | ||
| Sex | |||||||||
| F | 143 | 110 (77) | 33 (23) | 8 (24) | 2 (6) | 29 (88) | 2 (6) | NA | |
| M |
42 |
29 (69) |
13 (31) |
|
9 (69) |
0 |
9 (69) |
1 (8) |
|
| Pertussis patients without asthma/COPD | |||||||||
| Overall | 709 | 534 (75) | 175 (25) | 34 (19) | 4 (2) | 147 (84) | 9 (5) | 2 (1) | |
| Age group, y | |||||||||
| 50–64 | 452 | 337 (75) | 115 (25) | 21 (18) | 1 (1) | 99 (86) | 5 (4) | 1 (1) | |
| 65–74 | 173 | 129 (75) | 44 (25) | 7 (16) | 2 (5) | 38 (86) | 1 (2) | 0 | |
| 75–84 | 60 | 49 (82) | 11 (18) | 5 (45) | 1 (9) | 5 (45) | 3 (27) | 0 | |
| >85 | 24 | 19 (79) | 5 (21) | 1 (20) | 0 | 5 (100) | 0 | 1 (20) | |
| Sex | |||||||||
| F | 443 | 337 (76) | 106 (24) | 21 (20) | 2 (2) | 87 (82) | 5 (5) | 2 (2) | |
| M | 264 | 196 (74) | 68 (26) | 13 (19) | 2 (3) | 59 (87) | 4 (6) | 0 | |
*Values are no. (%) except as indicated. Percentages were calculated within each row. Because some patients may have received combination of antibiotics, the sum of number of patients in antibiotics category do not equal to total number of pertussis cases in each row. Likewise, percentages do not sum up to 100%. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; NA, not applicable.