Bordetella pertussis is the primary agent of whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory disease that remains an important public health concern. Even with vaccination programs, pertussis causes substantial disease: the U.S. incidence is roughly 20% of pre-vaccine levels, and serologic data suggest on the order of a million B. pertussis infections occur annually. Including B. pertussis allows for rapid confirmation so that appropriate macrolide therapy and public health measures can be implemented (Sounder & Long 2015, Nieves & Heininger 2016).
References:
Souder, E., & Long, S. S. (2015). Pertussis in the Era of New Strains of Bordetella pertussis. Infectious disease clinics of North America, 29(4), 699–713.
Nieves, D. J., & Heininger, U. (2016). Bordetella pertussis. Microbiology spectrum, 4(3),
