Pertussis control remains a challenge due to recently observed effects of waning immunity to acellular vaccine and suboptimal vaccine coverage. Multiple outbreaks have been reported in different ages worldwide. For certain outbreaks, publichealth authorities can launch an outbreak response immunization (ORI) campaign to control pertussis spread. The authors developed an agent-based model to investigate effects of outbreak response immunization campaigns targeting young adolescents in averting pertussis cases. The experience proved that ABM offers a promising methodology to evaluate other public health interventions used in pertussis control. The authors also identified the strong need for further research into application of modeling to further our understanding of pertussis epidemiology.
