Pediatrics
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Pertussis incidence is increasing, possibly due to the introduction of acellular vaccines, which may have decreased the durability of immune response. We sought to evaluate and compare the duration of protective immunity conferred by a childhood immunization series with 3 or 5 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP). ⋯ Although acellular pertussis vaccines are considered safer, the adoption of these vaccines may necessitate earlier booster vaccination and repeated boosting strategies to achieve necessary "herd effects" to control the spread of pertussis.