The possible adjuvant role of bordetella pertussis and pertussis vaccine in causing severe encephalopathic illness: a presentation of three case histories.

The clinical and some laboratory details of three children who had severe neurological sequelae after either infection with Bordetella pertussis or immunisation with diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine and oral polio vaccine are reported. Each of these patients had had a recent or concurrent viral illness. The severity of their encephalopathic illness may have been due to an adjuvant role of B. pertussis or a component of the vaccines they received.